It's Not Over 'Til It's Over
by SHSL Coder
Summary: It only made sense that if nearly a full year had passed and nothing has changed, people would start to find it difficult to hang on. Living nowadays was a nightmare: the global death toll from the outbreak must've been in the millions, maybe even breaking ten digits. Even still, the ex-students of Hope's Peak Academy refused to give up on hope. [Zombie Apocalypse AU]
1. Persistence

**\- 01 -**

 _\- Persistence -_

* * *

"To love means loving the unlovable.

To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable.

Faith means believing the unbelievable.

 **Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless."**

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

As Naegi walked the streets among his classmates, his mind was crawling with thoughts. He couldn't help but think about everything that's changed.

There were many, many obvious things that changed over the last eight or so months (it was hard to tell the exact date without a phone calendar to keep track of). And yet, it was the smaller things that people don't often talk about that really hammered it in. Such as the smell. The nauseating, dirty stench that permanently embedded itself into the air, no matter if you were inside or out — the entire idea of 'fresh air' was left behind. A lot of ideas were.

How about the fact that he had been walking along a four-lane road, with no one around but a few other students? Yeah, that's a weird development. He remembers how packed this very street would be before everything happened. How he'd be in the car with his parents, with his sister, stuck in traffic for… for… That line of thought trails off. He didn't want to think about Komaru right now.

He makes a step and instead of his foot clashing against the road as it would've beforehand, it squishes in. That's another thing he's used to. Every other step sunk his shoe into rotten flesh. Flesh. He figures it's supposed to be soft, but that doesn't make each step any easier. Especially considering where it all came from.

"Hey, Naegi."

A voice brings him back to reality. He recoils as a hand shakes his shoulder about. "You okay in there?"

Naegi looks up and sees that it's Oowada talking to him. His hair isn't as long as it was. Kirigiri insisted that long hair is a hazard nowadays; she cut her hair as well, so Oowada's eventually went from sitting about a foot in front of his face to being tied up in a rope somewhere back home. His signature biker jacket never went anywhere, though.

Naegi blinks. "Ah… okay in where?"

"That damn head'a yours!" Oowada flicks Naegi in the side of his head. "You've been too quiet."

"O-Oh, I'm sorry," he says with a nervous smile, "I've just been thinking."

Kuwata shudders. "Bad idea, bro."

The ex-baseball player's right. Thinking too much is a bad idea.

So he stopped. Optimism is Naegi's thing, after all. And now isn't the time to be downtrodden over things that, in comparison, are really quite trivial.

Not while Maizono's back home with a bite that shredded her entire shin apart.

It happened a couple weeks ago now. She tagged along for what was supposed to be just another supply run, but it didn't go that away. The group was ambushed. Five healthy students left and four came back, one of them taking a bite with them. It was Hagakure who couldn't make it. They were only asked what happened once and it was never brought up again, but Asahina said something to the lines of Hagakure staying behind to hold back the horde. Of course he would. Leave it to the oldest to play the hero. Apparently, it was that or none of the five would've returned.

So, in essence, Naegi had to be grateful Maizono is alive at all. That's the kind of world he lived in now.

"Hey, while we're out… Do you guys wanna start looking for food?" Asahina asks.

"Eh!?" Oowada looks at the swimmer, "What, are you hungry?"

"Well, yeah!" Asahina pouts. "I didn't eat since last night. And that was like, a can of beans or something…"

"We do need some more food…" Naegi agrees, scratching his neck. He dug at the thin layer of dried dirt that's been there since who knows how long.

"So are we out already then?" Oowada asks with an irritated tone.

"Huh? No, we probably won't be out for a little while-"

"Then why are you stressin' over food?" Oowada says, "If we're still eating, then don't worry about it!" He shakes his head in dismay.

"That's all I ate yesterday!" Asahina protests.

"Tch…" Oowada frowns, "What about you two?"

"I shared some soup with Maizono," Kuwata says. He was absentmindedly twirling his stained baseball bat around. Sometimes he wonders how he managed to hang on to it this long, it being one of the very few things he still has from before the outbreak.

"I… didn't eat at all, haha…" Naegi admits.

"Wait, what!?" Oowada raises his voice again. "The whole day!?"

"I-It's okay! I'm used to it." Naegi puts up his hands in defense, as if to say there's nothing wrong with that. He planned on following up to that, but then he looks away in silence, realizing what he just said.

"See? We're starting to ration the food." Asahina frowns.

"What about Maizono? When was her last Iris?" Oowada asks.

"Four or five days... She's really overdue." Naegi says.

"That leg's killin' her, literally." Kuwata sighs. "Kimura said she might not make it through the night."

The quartet goes quiet as they continue on their way. The rest of the group needs food or they're going to starve to death, and Maizono needs an Iris or she's going to turn.

"Maizono needs her damn medication now." Oowada eventually decides, "So we're getting her her damn medication first!"

"I just meant on the way back!" Asahina says.

"You ain't supposed to go anymore than a few days without an Iris if you're infected! We don't know how long she has!" Oowada retorts,

"Hey, big guy, shut up!" Kuwata says in a hushed tone, suddenly stopping in front of the group and shooting an arm out. Asahina didn't look as if she was about to retort, anyway. He had a point.

"Huh?" Naegi asks, looking around Kuwata to see what he pointed at. "What is— ohh…"

There was a bit of a scene in the middle of the road.

Three humanoid figures crowded around another on the ground. At least, that's all it appeared to be at first. But that's more than enough evidence to tell what it really is.

The figures would never look human. Maybe they had the general shape of one, all four limbs usually accounted for, a head, a torso, and so on, but that's where the similarities ended. Saying they were skinny would be an understatement — dull, empty grey skin wrapped around the bones of their legs like an airtight seal with no meat between the two, and it was a wonder how they got around with those twigs holding up their entire weight. Though, considering how their cracked yellow ribs were often exposed, most of their weight just rotted off the body anyway. They never had much for hair. Whatever hadn't fallen off yet instead became thin, white, and each one few and far between. One of the things no one usually mentions, usually because no one wants to look at them long enough to notice it, is what happened to their eyes. It happens a lot, Naegi would recall walking through the halls at school and notice that some people just had more life in their eyes than others. But as for them, there was nothing in their eyes. No light. No life. They turned into the eyes of an animal. Where eyes once carried depth, and some felt as if you could stare into them and see miles and miles in, infected eyes felt like there was a wall right behind the pupil.

And that's just what they looked like. The ones in front of Naegi and his friends were digging their long, deformed fingers into a human corpse on the road, picking up pieces of its red — dark enough that it appeared black from the group's perspective — flesh and eating it like they were grabbing handfuls of popcorn. All they knew was aggression, hunger. Combine that with a lack of control and you have a hell of a problem.

"You see?" Oowada whispers to Asahina, pointing at the scene. "You want Maizono to become one of those?"

"What are you talking about? A-Are you stupid? Hell no!" Asahina grits her teeth.

"Then we're rushing back with an Iris!" Oowada says, before waving everyone over to the sidewalk.

…

The four sneak by the infected successfully. They were so focused on the current task that they weren't able to hear the group. An upside to their lack of reasoning was that, assuming they weren't actively targeting you, they were easy to avoid.

The group went quiet for a while.

Oowada sighs, slicing into the thick atmosphere. "Hey, look, I'm sorry, okay? I just want to get that Iris to Maizono as fast as we can. I didn't mean to say all that shit."

"I know," Asahina gives a little smile. "It's okay."

"How about we go on another run after, then?" Naegi suggests.

Asahina agrees. She knows Maizono is in trouble. But without food, the entire group is. Everyone needs to be looked after.

"I'll go on that run with you guys," Kuwata says.

"I'm taggin' along too." Oowada agrees.

* * *

The silence in the city eventually faded away as the group approached the government service center. A large sign in the middle of the road read the purple words 'Iris Sold Here' with an arrow pointing to the building, and the words 'Future Foundation' next to it. Around it were dozens of men in black from the riot helmet down to the combat boots, all carrying presumably automatic rifles. Some military vehicles were scattered around the area as well. Seeing the army was a common thing. The first time the army was called in, it was one of the many signs that drove home the devastation of the new world - now, it's as common as seeing a plainclothes police officer. Maybe even moreso.

"I can't believe they're still so expensive. Who has a job anymore?"

"I swear the government's the only people that even uses money at all still…"

"Right? Everyone prefers favors now. Or food."

"Or Irises."

"Aaaagh…" Kuwata groans, taking Naegi out of his focus on the conversation he was listening to. "I hate lines."

"This is bullshit, man." Oowada says, "How much you wanna bet they're gonna be out by the time we even get inside?"

"Don't say that! We'll get some this time." Asahina frowns.

"He's right though! It feels like nine times out of ten they're out of Irises." Kuwata comments.

"All we can do is hope this is the one time they aren't, then." Naegi says.

"...You and your hope, man." Kuwata says, but he can't stop the smile from coming on his face.

"Haha."

It took about fifteen minutes for them to even get inside. They were in a large room with a blue carpet and dozens of chairs scattered around in front of the long desk used for sales. It took another fifteen minutes of mundane waiting for people to start leaving.

"Huh? What's goin' on?" Kuwata asks to no one in particular, having just thrown the question out there.

"They're out."

The group's heads all turned to the elder passing by them.

"Again. And there won't be anymore until next week." she says in a quiet voice. Her eyes were red.

The students went silent as the building slowly emptied around them. Oowada marched right up to the desk as soon as he got a chance.

"What the fuck happened?" Without as much as a hello, he glares down the staff worker behind the desk.

"I'm afraid we're out of Irises today. We'll be open again next week, thank y—" the staffer started.

"The fuck you mean, next week!?" Oowada cut in, "We don't have until next week!"

"The demand is just too high. I'm sorry." he apologized.

"Bullshit!"

Oowada wasn't here for any one-liner excuses. His arms lunged over the desk, grabbing the worker by the scruff of his shirt and raising him in the air like his weight suddenly didn't matter. He stared down at Oowada and immediately struggled to get out of his iron grip as gasps rang out from the remaining crowd as a response.

"You know Maizono? Maizono Sayaka, the SHSL Idol?" Oowada says, each word carrying his seething anger, "She's back home with a fucking bite! She hasn't had an Iris in days!"

"Wh—what do you want me to do!? There's no more!" the worker says.

"I'm saying that's bullshit! You're holding it back for yourselves, aren't you!? Probably getting high off it or something, you bastards!"

"Oowada!" Kuwata had already left. He holds one of the doors open and leans in halfway, calling out to Oowada and says, "Drop him, I got an idea."

Several soldiers had surrounded Oowada already, each having the sights of their weapons trained on the biker's head. Kuwata motions for him to hurry up.

"Come on Oowada," Naegi says, "This isn't going to help…"

His voice is low. It has been days. Maizono barely got out of bed yesterday and not once today. When Naegi tried talking to her before leaving, she was almost unresponsive.

Even so, he refused to lose hope.

Not while she had breath in her lungs. Her only response to Naegi was to curl her fingers around his own to tell him she's still around, but that was more than enough. She's still alive.

It's not over yet. It's looking bad, but it's not over yet.

"Come on, Oowada, drop him! We don't know how much more time we can waste!" Asahina says, not explicitly mentioning why, but everyone got the idea, since they were already thinking it. Maizono's hours are numbered.

"Piece of crap," Oowada snarls at the worker, "You're lucky I ain't with the Diamonds right now."

To say he dropped him would be an understatement - he sort of threw him against the floor instead, which prompted more yelling from the soldiers and being forced outside. It was a shock they weren't shot on the spot.

"Alright, come on, come on!" Kuwata says as soon as everyone was back out in the cool autumn weather, already breaking into a jog away from the service center.

"Where are we going? We should be going that way—" Asahina says, jabbing a thumb behind her before getting cut off.

"The last guy who got an Iris. He went this way." Kuwata says, pointing ahead with his bat. He speeds up.

"Huh? And? What about him?" Asahina asks.

"We're gonna go get it from him!" Kuwata says.

"H-Huh!?" Asahina says in surprise.

"Aaaah, shit…" Oowada keeps up, but he hangs his head as he runs alongside Kuwata. "I didn't want to do this, man. We've never stolen from anyone before!"

"Weren't you a biker, dude? C'mon!" Kuwata frowns.

"Yeah, not just any biker, the leader of the goddamn Crazy Diamonds! What's that gotta do with anything?"

"What do you mean? That's your thing! Stealing!" Kuwata says, looking at Oowada in actual surprise.

Oowada scoffs. Just because he was a gang member before doesn't mean anything. That being said, Maizono isn't going to last much longer. From what the others said, from what he's seen, Maizono might not make it through the night. And he's not about to 'mercy kill' her. "Fuck! Alright. Just this once. I'm not trying to be that kinda guy again." He's seen too much evil lately. There's no way he's going to add to it any more than he needs to.

"Guys, I- a-are you serious?" Naegi manages to find it in himself to argue. He knows the suffering Maizono's currently going through. He knows that she might be dead as they spoke, he knows that while being behind on her Irises she may have turned and promptly bitten everyone else, and yet he can't just agree to this so easily. "What if they need an Iris too? Why are we—"

"Because for all we know, Maizono might not see tomorrow morning, man!" Kuwata replies. He's been spending a lot of time with her since she got bit. So he knows exactly how she's doing, and as much as he hates to admit it, he knows that Maizono is not well. "This is an emergency!"

"B-But it might be an emergency for them, too!" Naegi protests.

"I'm not going back empty-handed!" Oowada says, "I hate this too, but what the hell are we gonna do? Let her die?"

"What if we got the last Iris, huh? And someone attacked us? Would that be okay?" Asahina pipes up. A lot of people lost their humanity. It was the transition from having the comfort of knowing there'll be food on the table that night, to a relentless winter without a roof over their head that ripped it away. Now it's everyone for themselves, no matter what. Asahina was one of the lucky ones who still had their morals.

"Maizono's dying, man." Kuwata says, repeating the one thing no one isn't aware of, "Can't we talk about ethics and stuff later?"

"Who was it?" Oowada asks.

"Huh?" Kuwata looks back at him with furrowed, overgrown eyebrows.

"The one who got the last Iris, dumbass!"

"Oh! He was big. Bigger than you," Kuwata says, "Like… really big…"

"Great," Asahina rolls her eyes, "Did you even think through that we might not be able to rob this guy?"

"It'll be fine! There's four of us. Oowada could probably take him alone." Kuwata reassures, but it did nothing to calm Asahina's nerves, nor the urge to stop running and turn tail.

"What, that all I'm good for? Stealing and hurting people?" Oowada says.

"E-Eh—"

"Relax! I'm fucking with you." Oowada grins.

"Don't do that!" Kuwata snaps before sighing in relief.

The four eventually came up to an intersection.

"Hey, Kuwata… Which way did he go? He didn't turn at all?" Naegi asks.

Kuwata blinks. "Huh. That's a good question."

"Are you kidding me, Kuwata!?" Asahina practically shouts before slowing to a stop. The others do the same.

"H-Hey, I didn't see him turn!" Kuwata attempts to defend himself.

"You didn't see him go straight either, did you…?" Naegi asks.

Kuwata simply looks away, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ahhh, shit. We need that damn Iris." Oowada shakes his head before looking around the intersection.

Naegi opted to look up, instead. The sky had previously been a slowly, steadily darkening blue, thanks to the later time of day, but he noticed the colors shifting toward orange. Sundown was coming.

"Yeaaah, when I popped in to grab you guys, I lost 'im…" Kuwata says.

"So he could've turned who knows how long ago?" Oowada asks for confirmation.

"I-I mean. Well." Kuwata can't answer that.

"Hang on… This is the first major intersection." Naegi points out. Asahina gives him a funny look - he wasn't for this not that long ago, why is he helping out now? As for Naegi, he decided that maybe they could reason with the guy who got the last Iris. Talk it out instead of resorting to violence. Maybe he had more at his base. At least, he decided that'd be how he'd convince himself that he's not becoming too desperate.

"But we passed other turns!" Oowada says.

"This is impossible." Asahina cuts in. "Let's go back. Maizono can hang in there one more night, right…?"

"I'm not ready to give up on her like that!" Oowada spits.

"And what, you think I am!?" Asahina yells back with a sudden increase in volume. "I don't want Maizono to die any more than you do! But how are we supposed to find an Iris now?"

"You guys are being too loud." Kuwata says, but it falls on deaf ears. With a sigh, he watches out for anyone who might've been attracted to the noise.

Naegi walked away for a moment. He looked around the intersection and the three ways he could've went. The one they were looking for was very likely to be gone by now, but he wasn't sure of that yet.

Straight ahead, there was a building in the midst of construction on the left corner; its signs talking about new, amazing condos, but chances are, they'll never see the light of day. He sees several infected dragging their feet behind them, wandering aimlessly.

The roads left and right opened up, becoming six lanes with islands in the middle separating the two directions. Naegi remembers the trees that grew on each island. The green is gone now, replaced by a pile of branches standing on brown dirt, thanks to no one taking any care of them. That's something that should really get fixed. Nature was one of the most unfortunate casualties of the outbreak.

While Naegi was scanning both directions, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

Footprints in the dirt in front of him.

He kneels down to get a better look (he immediately regrets that as his slacks become soaked in something he doesn't go out of his way to find out what) at the footprints. They're awfully large; that being the reason why he even noticed them in the first place. Each one was made up of circles, rather than any pattern of grooves or anything. The prints' edges appeared to still be sharp and overall fresh, meaning the prints must've been recent.

"Hey, Kuwata." Naegi says, "Come here for a second."

He does. Looking down at the luckster with confusion he says, "What're you lookin' at down there?"

"What do you think of these prints?" Naegi asks.

"Huh…? Oh, shit, I didn't even see those!" Kuwata says after a moment, realizing there are indeed prints. He gets down on his knees and according to the slight grimace in his face, had the same reaction Naegi did to the dirty road. "So, uh, what about them?"

"Do you think our guy might've made these?"

"Well, I didn't see the bottom of the guy's shoe…" Kuwata says, scratching his head.

Naegi sighs. He'll have to get more specific. "You said he was big, right?"

"Yeah. And?" Kuwata nods.

Naegi adjusts his body so he can hover a foot next to the prints, making sure not to mess them up. "These are much bigger than mine, so…"

"Ohh…" Kuwata's eyes open up. "Yeah, he'd definitely be wearing a big shoe!"

"Were they sneakers?"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember that. He was decked out in workout clothes. Well, and a gakuran, I think."

'Then we have a lead.' Naegi thinks to himself with a smile.

He gets up and explains to the others what he found. The target was recently seen heading this way, wore sneakers, and they were most likely a large size. The prints match all of the parameters.

"Hang on," Asahina says, "How do you know these are sneaker prints?"

"I don't, I guess. But look at the pattern," Naegi says, pointing at a print. Asahina crouches down. "It's all circles. Boots or any other shoe would have a different pattern since they're kind of like tire tread."

"Tire tread and boots ain't always the same thing," Oowada says.

When Oowada says that, a lightbulb blinks on in Naegi's head as he realizes Oowada was a bike enthusiast. He'd have to know tires.

"What's tire tread for again, Oowada?" Naegi asks.

"What? You just said it! The pattern has all these… notches and shit so it can grab onto the road, or break away snow or somethin'. For traction. But this is a shoe!" Oowada explains, despite having no idea where Naegi's going with this.

"Boots would have to be the same thing, right? Especially winter boots?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Now, these shoes… Do they look like they were made for extra traction?"

Oowada, refusing to get anywhere close to the ground, looked down at the prints while standing. He says, "No way. It's all circles. The fuck kinda traction are you gonna get with that?"

"Ohh…" Asahina says as she gets the idea.

"Sneakers aren't made for extra traction. Therefore, this could be a sneaker!" Naegi finally concludes.

Oowada shrugs. "Well, I guess that's the best we're gonna get."

"Alright! So we ready to keep moving?" Kuwata asks.

Asahina pauses for a moment. "Yeah, looks like it," she eventually says with a nod.

With the search now back in full swing, the group turns left to follow the footprints.

* * *

The prints might not have been definitive proof, but then they started seeing the dead bodies of the infected.

They surrounded one such body. It was more put-together than the rest they've seen, lacking a lack of any body parts, and even had a little more weight. The body had long legs and appeared as if it'd be nearly a foot taller than the group that inspected it. This was one of the different types of 'special' infected.

"I've never seen one dead before," Oowada had remarked, "The normal ones are fast enough, but these guys are a whole other fuckin' story."

Naegi looked at Kuwata. "Uh… Just how big was this guy?"

"Look, I'll put it to ya this way — I thought we were in a gym for a sec when I saw him." Kuwata replied.

Asahina's eyes drifted toward the body. "What are we getting ourselves into?"

Naegi felt a little worried too. He's never seen this type defeated, either. Anyone with that specific mutation of the virus got a physical upgrade instead: their legs would become stronger somehow, which led to them being able to sprint faster than someone clean, and getting stepped on would feel like getting stomped by a horse. The color of their skin and their reduced brain power was on the same level as the 'regular' infected, so you could still sneak past them — it just became a higher risk. No one would dare try to provoke one of these, because unless you have a gun and can take it out before it gets to you, there's no outrunning or even reaction time to defend yourself. Often people would try to find a different route to get around them.

Except none of that mattered in the slightest to whoever they were looking for, considering that they killed one of them.

"I might need that bat of yours when we find him," Oowada commented to Kuwata as they left the body, continuing on their way.

"Hey, can't we at least try talking to him first?" Naegi frowns.

"You kidding? Guy's gonna fuckin' crush us if he catches us with our guard down. So I say we crush him first!"

"Always resorting to violence…" Asahina sighs.

"Hey, no objections here." Kuwata says.

"Yeah? Well, I object."

Naegi looks at Asahina. "You too?"

"Of course!" she says, nodding enthusiastically, "If we don't have to hurt him, then let's not."

"Uhhh… I'm no good at talking, man." Kuwata says.

"Yeah, me neither. You know how much easier it would be if we could just knock him out and take it?" Oowada adds.

"Then let us do the talking." Naegi says, referring to himself and Asahina.

Oowada was going to protest, but a sound nearby distracted him, as well as the rest of the group.

Kuwata looks ahead. "No way…"

"What is it?" Oowada asks.

"That's him!"

They look ahead, and sure enough, they see a large, muscular male dressed in a pair of blue trackpants and a white tanktop under a black gakuran. A huge silver chain is in his hands, and he uses it to fight an infected - another fast one.

"Him!?" Oowada points at the male.

"Yeah. I told you he's big—"

"That's Nidai Nekomaru, dumbass! The SHSL Team Manager!" Oowada explains. "You didn't tell us that!"

"H-Huh? He's got an SHSL?" Kuwata asks, confused.

"Tch. People say he's almost three hundred pounds of lean fuckin' muscle. I don't think he eats anything other than pure protein." Oowada says.

Naegi swallows. That doesn't sound good.

Nidai is able to choke out the infected. It slumps over, making a thump as it collapses onto the floor. Nidai stands in place for a moment, stopping to catch his breath.

"Alright. Naegi, Asahina, you really sure about talking to this bastard?" Oowada asks.

"Yeah!" Asahina nods, determined.

Naegi agrees as well.

"Okay. Let's do it then." Kuwata says.

A few moments later, the group has finally caught up to the one they've been chasing all this time.

'Is this right…?' Naegi thinks, now a little worried.

"Hey!" Oowada suddenly calls out. "Nice kill."

Nidai's attention has been caught. He turns to the group in confusion. Asahina glares at Oowada and whispers, "What the hell are you doing?" to which Oowada does not respond.

"Huh!? What do you want!?" Nidai shouts back. Each word sounded like a bomb went off with it.

"U-Um, sorry… W-We need some help." Naegi says.

Nidai's expression softens immediately. "Oh! Well, why didn't you just say that!?"

'Because you're not going to like what help we need from you…'

"...Do you have an Iris?" Naegi asks, getting to the point.

Nidai pauses.

"Why?" he asks.

"We have someone dying back home," Asahina takes over, "She hasn't had one in days. Sh-she might not make it through tonight!"

"Mmmmm…" Nidai seems to be in thought.

"Oi, cut the bullshit! We saw you in line earlier!" Kuwata says, glaring.

"I need to get this Iris back home too!" Nidai yells, "There's three infected back home, at least one of them needs it!"

The group went silent.

'Three… Three infected?' Naegi thinks.

"Aw, fuck, man. That's rough." Kuwata says, looking away.

"I'm so sorry," Asahina says with a frown, "I hope they get better! Okay, come on. Let's go."

At least, she said that, but no one moved.

"Thank you! I'm sorry to hear about your friend too, and I hope you are able to find an Iris tonight!" Nidai says through a massive grin. He turns around and starts to walk away.

'N-No! Maizono…'

"Hey, we just gonna let him go so fast? After all that time we took gettin' after him?" Oowada asks with widened eyes, whipping around to face the group.

"Are we going to let three of his friends die?" Naegi counters. "The night's not over yet! We can still try to find an Iris!"

"He's a fuckin' stranger! Maizono's our friend!" Oowada says.

Asahina tries to calm Oowada. Kuwata can't make up his mind whether or not they should chase after him and get the Iris through violence.

'Maizono…'

Naegi was frozen in time, and time didn't stop to wait up. The longer he stopped, the farther away Nidai got. All he could think about was Maizono.

Ever since she came home with the bite, Naegi was terrified that she was going to turn. Turn into one of those things, the things Nidai had to kill in self defense. It's how the infection spread; through bodily liquids. That and the infected people's instinctual urge to attack — through bites — meant it spread way out of control and faster than the experts ever could've predicted.

This was going to happen to Maizono if she doesn't get an Iris.

The girl he initially met in middle school. Who he had known for years.

…

'What do we do?'

'What are we supposed to do!?'

…

..

.

.

It was a bang that brought him back to reality.

"Oowada!" Asahina screams.

"Woooah!" Kuwata steps back, shaking.

A few moments later, there's another thump. Like when Nidai killed the infected, and its dead body fell to the ground.

Oowada swallows and puts the gun —

'Where did he get a gun?'

— back in his jacket.

He puts the gun back in his jacket.

He slowly walks toward Nidai.

Nidai, was face first on the asphalt and had a slowly growing puddle of blood underneath him.

He kneels down next to Nidai and starts checking his pockets. "I'm sorry!" he says, over and over again. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't— I — "

"Oowada!" Naegi screams as well. Him, Asahina, and Kuwata rush over.

'When did he get a gun?'

'I've never seen him with a gun!'

'We don't use guns!'

'Ikusaba barely uses guns!'

'So where did Oowada's come from?'

Nidai coughs, and blood sprays out alongside saliva. He spits out a thick glob of blood right after. "What the hell…?"

"I got it. I-I got it, let's go!" Oowada shouts as he shoots back up to his feet, trembling and almost tripping as he does. His shaking hand holds a translucent purple capsule with a white lid.

An Iris. He's holding an Iris. He's holding the only thing that'll keep Maizono alive.

"Are we leaving him here!? What the hell is wrong with you!?" Asahina was shrieking now. Her pitch was high enough she was almost squeaking, and her skin went almost as pale as the infected.

Nobody knew Oowada had a gun. Nobody knew he was going to shoot Nidai.

"Th-This is for Maizono!" Oowada shouts. "I-I said let's go, dammit!"

"Dude, that's- dude!" Kuwata couldn't form a coherent sentence.

Naegi couldn't speak at all.

Nidai's arm suddenly went up. Oowada noticed this and stepped back, unholstering his gun, pointing it at him with one hand again. "Stop!" he warns.

Only Nidai's index finger curled out of his fist. He was pointing down the road. The group turned to follow his finger, and seen the inevitable barreling their way.

Infected are attracted to sound. Gunshots and yelling are loud. Thus, it wouldn't be too surprising if a horde were to come their way, and that's precisely what they all saw.

"Kch…" Oowada's eyes widened. "A-Alright. We're getting him outta here. We can't leave him here."

Asahina nodded. She took Nidai's head as the others came and took a part of Nidai, before a countdown from three and heaved his body up.

"There," Naegi says, nodding in the direction of a coffee shop — the only place nearby having all its windows, "In there!"

The four struggled to get Nidai through the door. Once that was done, things started moving fast.

Naegi and Asahina rushed to get Nidai on the floor as the swimmer unzipped and shrugged off her jacket. She uses it to wipe away excess blood spilling out of Nidai's wound before tying the jacket around it, which was easier said than done, thanks to his size. Oowada and Kuwata were quick to stack tables and chairs in front of the doors and windows.

"What the hell did you shoot him for!?" Asahina yells.

"It's okay!" Nidai manages to say. The others look at him, shocked he can still speak. "I understand…"

"I-It's not okay!" Asahina says, shaking her head rapidly.

"How long have you had a gun, dude?" Kuwata asks Oowada.

"I found it last week. Didn't tell anyone because I knew no one would like that I had one…" Oowada says.

The five sit in the dark, silent coffee shop. Soon enough, the horde makes it past the windows. They're all speeding by. Running like they're trying for an Olympic gold medal. Several different types of infected are seen in the crowd, and the notably weaker ones are tripping over themselves and falling, unable to keep up.

"Where the hell did all these guys come from?" Kuwata asks, watching the dozens of infected run past, from the cover of the darkness.

"From a gunshot," Asahina says.

Oowada looks over at Nidai. He lies on the ground in silence, no other sounds than him trying to regulate his breathing. No groans, no yelling, seemingly no pain. This isn't how people usually react to getting shot, Oowada notes.

"...You okay down there, bud?" Oowada asks.

Nidai puts up a thumbs up. "Heh… You misunderestimate me! I'll be fine…!" Then his face falls. "But I can't feel my legs…"

Oowada knows why. He noticed it earlier, but figured if he tried not to talk about it, or even think about it, he could possibly will the wound into not doing that. He had shot Nidai in the back near his hips.

If Nidai can live through this, he's might not walk again. He might be paralyzed.

"Sorry, I wish I could do better than this…" Asahina says, referring to her jacket. "We thought we were just going to go to the service center and right back, so we didn't bring any first aid. We didn't think anyone was going to shoot anyone!" she adds, giving Oowada a dirty glare.

"I'll be okay…" Nidai reassures once again, with a grin.

More silence. More infected past the window. Oowada may as well have awoken all of the city's infected population.

"You're Hope's Peak students, aren't you?" Nidai asks.

"Yeah," Asahina nods. "Class 78."

Nidai nods. "77… SHSL Team Manager, Nidai Nekomaru a-at your service!"

"Asahina Aoi, SHSL Swimming Pro," Asahina smiles as she introduces herself.

"Um, I'm Naegi Makoto. SHSL Lucky Student… Can you believe it? I won a lottery to get in." Naegi says.

"We have one of those too! I'll never understand that kid's luck… Thing works both ways," Nidai replies.

"I feel the same sometimes."

Kuwata continues the introductions. "Well, I'm Kuwata Leon. SHSL Musician." He grins.

Nidai gives him a confused look. "...You don't look like Ibuki."

"Shit, did you have a Musician in your class?" Kuwata asks, bluff called out.

"Mhm! I wish you could've met her while she still had a guitar…"

Kuwata knew nothing about Ibuki in the slightest, but now he wants to change that.

"Daaamn, I do too. Haven't heard one of those in a while. Well, anyway, I'm the SHSL Baseball Star." he says, rolling his eyes. "Like, for real? Baseball? How the hell'd I get scouted for that?"

Nidai grins. "So that's why I never saw you at practice..."

"Huh?" Kuwata blinks.

"I coached the baseball team for a while." Nidai says, pausing for a moment to take a breath, "They were so excited when I told them an SHSL Baseball Star was on the roster, but…"

"...That Baseball Star never showed up." Kuwata finishes the sentence.

"Of course he wouldn't." Asahina rolls her eyes.

"Hey! And how much practice did you go to, huh?" Kuwata snaps.

"Enough to represent Hope's Peak at the Olympics."

"You didn't even swim!"

"I would've one day — if the world didn't end!"

"Bullshit!"

Nidai, hearing the two athletes bicker back and forth, eventually broke out into a roaring laughter that was loud enough to turn a few of the heads outside. Somehow, whether it be good luck or what, there wasn't a large reaction.

"Th-the fact that you can laugh like that after getting shot is kind of amazing." Kuwata comments.

"That's his thing," Oowada eventually walked over to the group. He wasn't sure if he should, considering he's responsible for the guy on the floor bleeding out, but a man has to at least try to own up to what he's done, he figures. "Man, I remember bein' with my buds just walking through the halls and hearing this guy from the other end of the building. We wouldn't have a fuckin' clue what he'd be laughing about but we'd join in too."

Nidai laughs again. "So what about you? What's your name?" he asks Oowada.

"Oowada Mondo, SHSL Biker Gang Leader. Look, I'm sorry about shooting you, okay!?" Oowada says, suddenly raising his voice.

"Don't apologize for what you've done, Oowada!" Nidai retorts, before coughing. Red comes out of his mouth again. Asahina goes to try and find napkins upon seeing this, "What's done is done. I understand why you did it…"

"I shouldn't have! We should've kept looking for an Iris. The sun was still out!"

The sun had just about set by then. A blanket of darkness covered the streets, and without streetlights or neon signs, it would become much harder to navigate. Going out at night, where the infected roam and you can't see them, was suicide.

"We could've been back by now…" Oowada sighs.

"There's no point talking in should'ves and could'ves!" Nidai says. His voice is strained with each word. Asahina comes back with some napkins that weren't very soft anymore, but Nidai is able to use them to wipe his mouth. "You should be thinking about how y-you're getting out of here…"

Naegi, who had been silent again, had his attention grabbed by what Nidai just said.

"What do you mean 'how you're getting out of here'?" he asks.

Nidai goes quiet for a moment, before looking down at his legs. "I'm two hundred fifty pounds and I won't be able to walk… I'm only going to slow you all down!"

"You stupid or something!?" Oowada says, "That's nothing! I'll carry you back to our place my damn self!"

"A-Aren't you the manpower here?" Nidai asks.

"You haven't seen me take an infected out yet." Asahina says. The only problem was making the decision to go through with it: there was once a human life behind the virus, so at times it was hard to just kill them.

"And like, I got this big ass bat, anyway." Kuwata says, twirling the bat around again. Naegi, the lover rather than the fighter, had nothing to say on this front.

"I don't want any of you to get hurt…!" Nidai protests.

"Didn't you say you have three infected back home? Don't you need to go back to them?" Naegi asks.

"Night's still young. We can drop you off, head back out and grab some Irises for your friends." Oowada says.

"Mhm! If we can save any of them, that's what we'll do!" Asahina smiles.

"I can't ask you to do all that for me!" Nidai says.

"It's okay. We'll do it. We have a pharmacist back home, maybe she can help you." Naegi says, giving his own smile as well.

"You can't just leave your friends behind, man. We'll get you back to them." Kuwata says.

Nidai pauses, thinking over the offer.

"Oh, uh, by the way. You don't have a choice. We're gonna fix you up, dammit!" Oowada says.

Soon enough, Nidai's trademark boisterous laughter came back.

"Then so be it!" Nidai grins.

He grunts, moving his arms out to grab the nearby counter. Asahina tries to stop him, but he waves her off. He eventually struggles his way up onto his feet, leaning against the counter for support.

Nidai looks at the others. "Well…" he says, pausing again, this time for breath, "When are we getting out of here?"

"As soon as we find a way out," Asahina says.

"Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I don't really like the idea of going through that…" Kuwata points out, looking ahead at the horde still flying through the streets.

"Yeah, and waiting for 'em to pass ain't an option." Oowada adds.

"There has to be a back door or something, right?" Naegi says.

"Yeah, that's our best bet for sure." Kuwata says.

The group all look at one another for a moment, then give a determined nod.

"Okay," Naegi says, "Let's get back home."

* * *

[A/N: Ayylmao.

So I originally posted this over on AO3, and I figured I should put it up here too because why not.

This is, if you couldn't tell after reading like 7200 words, the introduction to a zombie apocalypse AU. I really don't know how long this is going to be. There's going to be a major plotline and I do have an ending planned out, but the in between may be long, or we might get right to it, who knows. I should. But I don't. At least not 100%. All I know is that I don't really plan on making this a 500 chapter epic with hundreds of thousands of words.

This is also my first time writing a fanfic with existing characters. I fucked around on the last couple years, but I only ever did OC inserts, lmao. So chances are everybody is incredibly out of character. Please let me know if they are.

On that note, pls do give constructive criticism? I know I can be a better writer, and some second opinions on what I'm doing right/wrong would be greatly appreciated.

Okay, that's that. Thanks for reading!]


	2. Defiance

**\- 02 -**

 _\- Defiance -_

* * *

"This is Jin Kirigiri. Hope's Peak Academy — both the Main Course and Reserve Course buildings — are under full lockdown. You are asked not to leave the building…"

Hinata Hajime's eyes studied the ongoing events outside the window, listening to the pitter-pattering of the rain, the howl of the wind, the headmaster's lockdown instructions, and the chaos of his classroom.

"I don't care about some stupid lockdown!" Kuzuryu Natsumi screeches at the teacher, who could do nothing but stare back and sigh, "I need to get into the main building, my _brother's_ in there!"

"Can you shut up!? He's not letting you go anywhere!" Sato yells at Kuzuryu, from the windows among the rest of the class.

"This is serious! Being put with _you_ garbage is one thing on any other day, but right now—"

Sato groans. "Alright, fine, keep trying then! Maybe you won't make it." That last sentence was said through gritted teeth as its source turned back to the window, but it was heard loud and clear.

"Maybe I'll just go anyway," Kuzuryu grins; but it's a Kuzuryu grin — the type with evil in the eyes, "I'll find Koizumi. She's in the same class anyway, right? Can't guarantee she'll stay inside…"

"Wh-what, are you going to put her into _that!?_ "

The two bickered back and forth for a while longer while everyone else was too involved in their own worries. Only Hinata could have been the third person in the class to have someone in the Main Course to care about anyway, and he knows making a scene won't get him any closer to Nanami. All he could do was watch the outside with his other shocked classmates.

Explaining what he saw would be a challenge. Hell, he figured even the Main Course students, the _talented_ ones, couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening.

How is anyone supposed to respond to seeing hundreds of people attacking Hope's Peak's campus?

There didn't appear to be any footroom down there. The attackers, who appeared clumsy enough as it is, were even tripping over one another. Not like that was stopping them. Hinata watched as they sped towards staff and students on the ground, and left behind their corpse and a pool of blood in their wake. The attacks themselves happened too fast to see what happened. Between their sheer numbers and speed alone, it looked to be almost impossible for anyone to defend themselves.

Hinata felt chills run through his entire body as he continued to watch this continue.

Kuzuryu paced around in a circle, smartphone to her ear. "Come on, come on! Pick up!" she says to herself.

"Dammit!" Kuzuryu shouted. Shaking her head, her phone went into her bag, and she left without another word.

"Hey!" the teacher yelled after her, but made no move to follow her outside.

 _'_ _Did she just leave? What the hell's she thinking?'_

Kuzuryu…

Hinata wasn't especially close to her. So far, the only interactions they had was a snark-off when she first arrived and a long talk about talent. Even so, could he just let her go into the chaos unfolding outside? Alone?

 _'_ _No…'_

It didn't take much thought. Hinata shot out of his chair and followed her outside.

"Kuzuryu!" he calls out as he leaves the classroom, looking in both directions for the girl. Except, the hallway was bare, and she was nowhere to be seen already. Hinata was about to start making his way out of the building until he heard a door open behind him.

Sato lets the door close behind her as she approaches the fellow reserve student. Her eyebrows are drawn together and her eyes squinted in anger. "Hey. Hinata, right? You're looking for Kuzuryu?"

"Yeah," Hinata nods, "but she's gone already."

"God knows how far she is by now. Come on, let's go!" Sato says before taking off down the hall.

"Y-You're looking too!? You should go back inside!" Hinata protests, catching up to Sato.

"I'm mostly looking for Mahiru. She's not picking up her phone and I'm not going to leave her with Kuzuryu." Sato says.

"You should still stay inside…"

"I'm _not_ going to leave her with Kuzuryu." Sato repeats herself.

Hinata sighs. _'If you insist.'_

The two traverse through the empty halls of Hope's Peak. Or, rather, the uniform school that is the Reserve Course building. It really is just a high school that you pay immense fees for and carries the Hope's Peak name.

Despite that, an irrational (or so he hopes) fear that the Reserve Course may fall that day manifests in Hinata's stomach.

Hinata breaks the silence after going down a floor. "You've known them for a long time, haven't you?"

"Obviously. Since middle school." Sato says.

Hinata remembers something like that. When the two had a certain argument a couple days before, Kuzuryu mentioned a photography club.

"You were in a photography club, right? She doesn't seem the type to be into photography _._ " Hinata comments.

"Yeah, she was about as good at it as you think she'd be," Sato says offhandedly, rolling her eyes, "The whole reason she hates Mahiru in the first place is because her pictures were so much better."

"Well, I think it's safe to say she's the jealous type, then…"

"I'm surprised she hasn't killed Mahiru yet. It's probably just a matter of time." Sato says.

"Do you really think that?" Hinata asks, blinking.

"Didn't she tell you? She's yakuza. She could do it. Or get some kind of assassin to do it, or whatever the _Kuzuryu-gumi_ does." Sato says, emphasizing 'Kuzuryu-gumi' with a thick layer of sarcasm.

"Would Hope's Peak really allow yakuza into the school?"

"Give them enough money and they'll do anything. Need to fund that project somehow."

Hinata nearly stops in his tracks, but keeps up. "Wait, what project?"

"You didn't get an offer? That Hope Cultivation Project or whatever?" Sato asks, raising a brow.

The Hope Cultivation Project.

When Hinata got the invitation, he wasn't told very much about it. All he knew was that he'd undergo some shady experimentation and come out with talent. He'd be regarded as the school's hope. The polar opposite of a Reserve Course student like himself.

"Yeah, I did…" Hinata says. "I kind of thought I was the only one to get an invite."

"Nope, a few others got one too. No one I know has said yes, obviously."

 _'_ _Obviously…'_

It was a stupid idea, right?

"I almost agreed," Hinata admits, "My parents need some way to pay off tuition…"

"And they'd let you go through whatever the hell Hope's Peak would do to you?" Sato asks.

"Everyone always says graduation from Hope's Peak guarantees success, so, maybe."

Sato sighs. "Once this is settled, don't do it, okay?"

"Why not?" Hinata asks.

"There's some crazy rumors going around about it, just… I'm not even going to try to explain it. We're almost out of here anyway."

The entrance and therefore hopefully the exit was in their grasp. Through the glass doors, they see the same crowd of attackers they saw floors above. And no safe way through.

"W-Woah. Did Kuzuryu actually go through that?" Hinata stops at the doors, looking through them.

"Tch. Maybe she did. And didn't make it through."

"Don't say that!" Hinata says, turning to meet Sato's eyes.

"What? Mahiru'd be safe then!" she says, before pausing for a moment and saying, "Well, we don't know that. So we still need to get into the Main Course building."

Hinata swallows. The trip doesn't look fun.

Now that the two are on the same level as the chaos, it's more clear what's happening. It didn't make any more sense, and if anything it only appeared more horrifying, but it wasn't so hard to make heads or tails of the outside. Hinata wanted to believe the attackers were wearing hyperrealistic costumes, but knew that probably wasn't the case — their bodies literally looked rotten, and it seemed as if he could see right through them at times. Campus appeared to be full of only attackers, but anyone who wasn't, was charged at and tackled to the ground. The attackers were doing it by leaping at them, and literally sinking their teeth into their flesh. Hinata would never be able to process what he was seeing in a million years. It felt like a horror movie.

 _Not_ real life.

"C-Can't we find another way? I'm not going through that." Hinata says.

Sato swallows as well. "Maybe that's a good idea."

The duo search the entire floor, looking through every exit for any signs of a clear pathway out. Eventually, they came to one certain exit. The Reserve Course's field was out this way, and it was void of any life.

"This might work, right?" Sato says, looking through the doors' windows. She can see the Main Course building in the distance. "We can pass through the field and get into the building!"

"Well, we'd still need to find an entrance in… It's walled off." Hinata says, "Even then, security might not let us in." he murmurs.

"With all this going on? No way," Sato shakes her head, "They'd have to let us in. So we don't die."

"We're still just Reserve Course students… They don't care if we die." Hinata says, in a murmur again.

"What?" Sato asks.

"You know we're nothing to the Main Course. Talentless, worthless, useless…" Hinata says quietly.

This whole 'talentless' talk reminds him of Nanami. How she's been trying so hard to stop Hinata from feeling that way.

He's also reminded of how her life may be in danger and how he can't leave her there alone. How he needs to find her.

"Never mind. You're right. They have to let us in."

 _'_ _They have to.'_

"Good. Don't you dare say anything like that again." Sato shoots a glare at Hinata, before pushing open the doors.

Hinata and Sato made their way across the field, only filling the silence with worried one-liners such as "I wonder how far Kuzuryu got" and "What's security doing?" and "Is this really happening?", all of them being concerns without any hope for a resolution. Though, to be fair, the silence wasn't all that silent — Hope's Peak had a lot of noise going on. Between the attackers groaning in pain and yelling when they attack, the chorus of the victims' screams echoing across the area, and the rhythm of gunfire slowly being added to the mix, it'd be impossible to block out the reality of what's happening, no matter how hard you wanted. That's what Hinata eventually concluded through the experience, anyway.

When the two managed to navigate to the main gates, they found the scene was just like the Reserve Course. The attackers flooded the gates with nobody around to fight back.

"E-Even the Main Course…" Hinata says, looking around the corner of the brick wall surrounding said course.

"I wonder where Sakakura is." Sato rolls her eyes.

"Eh?"

"He's head of security," she quickly explains, "Dammit, is this really the only way in?" Sato then says, looking behind her at the pathway they took, as if another one would open up all of a sudden.

"It can't be. Come on, let's try around back." Hinata says.

Sato reluctantly nodded. Getting through the front doors wasn't an option, but who knows what could happen in the time it takes to wrap around this massive school?

"Why haven't you gone back to class already?" Sato asks, as they turn around.

"What? Because I want to get into the Main Course right now as much as you do." Hinata replies, looking at her puzzled.

"Really? But I'm looking for Mahiru. Don't tell me you're looking for Kuzuryu." Sato says, "You don't like her or something, do you?"

"Where did you get _that_ idea?" The idea was so absurd that Hinata didn't even get flustered, he just sighed. "I'm also looking for somebody else. So if you can handle finding Koizumi and Kuzuryu, I might split up once we get in."

"Oh. Who?"

"Nanami. She's the—"

"SHSL Gamer, I know." Sato finishes the sentence. "She's in the same class as Mahiru."

"Oh, I didn't know that."

"Mahiru talks about that class a lot. And Nanami, specifically. That she's always trying to… bond with the class or something." Sato says.

"Making memories, huh…" Hinata murmurs.

"What was that?" Sato didn't catch that.

"Well, Nanami's usually talking about making memories. And friends. And how that's more important than talent."

Sato gives Hinata a side-look. "More important than talent? Yeah, I can see why you're looking for her."

"Eh?" Hinata wasn't sure, but he could swear he caught some kind of tone with that sentence.

"Never mind."

"Right…"

Goals in place, the rest of the walk around was silent. Hinata and Sato were the only two outside, excluding the attackers, but they only appeared to go through main entrances for some odd reason. Like following a script. Everything seemed so planned.

Eventually, they found the Main Course's back gate, completely void of life.

"Are we really the only ones here?" Hinata asks, confused.

"Everyone's probably busy with the whole messed up early Halloween thing going on," Sato replies.

"This isn't really just an 'early Halloween thing'..."

"That's why I said it's messed up!"

It's around this point that any will Hinata had to argue with Sato was eliminated. He sighs, for the umpteenth time since leaving the classroom. "Let's just get inside."

For whatever reason, the doors _opened._ Maybe the doors usually are open, but, didn't the headmaster himself invoke a school-wide lockdown? Why wasn't this door locked? Better yet, no one was guarding it, too.

The halls of Hope's Peak's Main Course were an entirely different scene from the Reserve Course. Its lighting was bright, everything was kept clean, there was more space to walk around, things were actually decorated — Hinata assumed an SHSL Architect and/or SHSL Decorator were part of the team building the building.

Another thing splitting apart the two would be the fact that the inside was not empty. Maybe not in the hallway Hinata and Sato found themselves in, but they immediately heard the same groans and shuffling of feet that they heard outside. The attackers breached Hope's Peak Academy.

Their attention was suddenly directed to the creaking open of a wooden door. When they turned their heads, they seen another head peeking out from behind it.

"Pssssst! Come here!" they whisper.

Sato sighs heavily and literally drags Hinata behind her into the classroom.

"Kuzuryu!" Sato says rather loudly as Hinata takes care to quietly close the door behind him. "Have you been in here the whole time!?"

Kuzuryu, who indeed was the one behind the door, sighs herself. "Are you stupid? Why are you so loud? Shut up already."

According to the usual off-the-charts level of sass, nothing happened to Kuzuryu in the last fifteen minutes or so.

"What happened?" Hinata asks.

"Well, I think I did the exact same thing _you_ _two_ did. By the way, what's up with that? You two dating now? Came lookin' for me so I can be your third wheel?" Kuzuryu teases.

 _'_ _Again? Really?'_ Hinata's palm makes direct contact with his face.

"Tell us what happened!" Sato raises her voice to direct that conversation elsewhere.

"Jeez, fine. But seriously, be quiet." Kuzuryu glares. Hinata nods, saying 'she has a point', which doesn't really help Sato's nerves. "Like I said, I probably did what you guys did. I couldn't get a hold of my brother, so I decided I'll just head over and check up on his ass. But when I got here, the school was kind of full of these braindead zombies or whatever, so I put myself in here and was gonna wait 'till the coast was clear."

"Did you find him yet?" Hinata asks.

"No, dumbass! I literally just said I came in here as soon as I got in!" Kuzuryu snaps. "His class isn't even on this floor."

"Oh…" Hinata flinches. "What floor, then?"

"Fifth. I've never been in here, so I don't know how to get up there. All I know is his classroom's 5-A."

"Do you know _anything?_ " Sato says, and Hinata flinches again. "Did you really plan on coming here, alone, and make it all the way up to the fifth floor, through all of this… _this?_ "

"Shut up!" Kuzuryu snaps, shouting at Sato. "Just- for one day? Think you can handle that? Not bitching until the whole _zombie apocalypse_ thing is over?"

"Says the bitch herself — you know, maybe you should've been in the Main Course. You'd be the SHSL Bitch!"

Had this been any other day, Hinata probably would've been watching the slinging of words in mild amusement, but considering all this yelling might attract the evils outside, he (reluctantly) interjects.

"Guys! Did you forget to be quiet?" Hinata cuts in. "Kuzuryu, you were literally just telling Sato to be quiet, weren't you?"

Kuzuryu frowns.

Sato frowns as well, also silent.

"Now, can we try to figure out what we're—"

Kuzuryu walks to the other end of the classroom, sitting at a desk and pulling out her phone to play games.

"Kuzuryu. Don't do that." Hinata says.

"Do _what?_ " Her voice is much softer than it was before.

"Walk away…"

"Hmph. You two lovebirds go on ahead. After you get eaten I'll head out."

"Are you implying you alone would do any better than the two of us?"

Kuzuryu reaches into her bag, and her hand comes out with a hot pink handle. She flicks it and a blade comes out.

"See? I can handle myself." she says, before using her index finger to push the blade back in and put it away.

"You're still carrying that knife around?" Sato asks without even a flinch, clearly having expected her to have something like an actual switchblade. Hinata, on the other hand, backed away and had to fight the urge to run out of the classroom. _'Why does she have a knife!?'_

"Obviously. But I would even if I wasn't yakuza. You don't know who's gonna start shit."

"So what would you do if someone did start shit? Stab them?"

"You think I'm the only one with a weapon? Tell me the SHSL Marksman doesn't carry around a gun…"

"She actually doesn't."

"Oh, that actually exists?" Kuzuryu raises a brow. "Well, how do you know she doesn't?"

Sato doesn't reply.

"Yeah, exactly." Kuzuryu says after a few moments of silence, before turning back to her phone.

At this point, the room turned into something of a stalemate. Kuzuryu refused to leave with Hinata and Sato, and Hinata and Sato refused to leave without her, considering a third head would always be better than two, not to mention that knife of hers. Well, Hinata didn't care to see it in action, but they couldn't deny that the knife would be invaluable for self defense against these monsters.

Sato broke off from Hinata to go look outside one of the classroom's massive windows, and takes her phone out. She attempts a call. Hinata sits at a desk nearby and pulls his own phone out. The first thing he notices, however, is the lack of reception.

"Hey. Do you guys have service?" Hinata asks, looking at the words 'No Service' in the corner of his screen.

"Yeah, I—" Sato started, before actually looking at her phone and cutting herself off. "Wait, what? It says 'no service'…"

"Yeah, me too." Hinata says.

"I got nothin' either." Kuzuryu says as well. She's still idly tapping at whatever game she had open.

"Why were you two trying to call anyone, then…?" Hinata couldn't help but ask.

"I _had_ service earlier! What the hell happened?" Sato says.

"I dunno. When I got in here, I didn't have any service, either." Kuzuryu adds.

"Weird." Hinata mutters. Not in the mood for games, his phone essentially became useless, so he puts it back in his pocket.

There's silence for a moment.

Sato sighs. "I can't stay here any longer. I'm heading out there."

"Wait, hang on!" Hinata, being closer to the door, puts himself in front of it, "Are you just going to go on your own?"

"Better than waiting for your lazy asses!" Sato snaps.

"Do _you_ know how to get up to the fifth floor?" Hinata asks.

"It's Hope's Peak. It can't be that hard to get around." Sato replies.

"Really? I'd say that'd make it more complicated. They need to facilitate all of the different talents, after all." Hinata retorts.

"And? There has to be signs. Even the Reserve Course building has signs."

"This building's still bigger, and you have to go through all those attackers outside!" Hinata says, before sighing. "This is crazy. Maybe we should try to get back to the Reserve Course building. Or just stay here."

"You kidding? That building's probably overrun now too." Kuzuryu comments. "You saw how many there were, didn't you?"

Hinata doesn't reply, because despite his want to argue, he knows it's impossible. They left the building when it was safe, but chances are, it's not safe anymore. And clearly, it's not as if the Main Course building is any better.

"Shit." Hinata curses.

"If you're worried about dying, or getting eaten alive or whatever, you should probably just sit your ass down and wait it out." Kuzuryu says. She's been on her phone the whole time, so she was definitely practicing what she was preaching.

"I can't just wait it out!" Sato says, "Mahiru might be in danger!"

"You think I'm not thinking the same thing about my brother?" Kuzuryu says, turning to look over her shoulder at Sato, "I should've been up there by now, but I'm not about to get fucking killed before I get there!"

"B-But…"

Kuzuryu pauses to look at her for a moment longer, then turns back.

"Fine." She eventually says, as her hand goes in her bag to put the phone away and take her knife back out. "Let's go."

Kuzuryu meets Hinata and Sato at the door, and nobody objects. The three are finally ready to head out into the chaos and find their closest friends.

Not another word is said before Kuzuryu opens the door wide, and immediately stabs an attacker.

"W-Woah!" Hinata exclaims. His eyes widen and his pupils shrink as he steps back.

"Piece of crap…" Kuzuryu says, but her trembling arm betrays her intimidating words.

One of the attackers was near the door, so Kuzuryu had stepped out and sunk the knife into its chest without as much as a second thought. It's not as if it reacted in any way, not even making a noise. There was the sort of squish as the attacker's chest absorbed the blade and its almost black blood splattering on the tiled floor, however. It slumped down into a lifeless, unmoving position right after.

"H- He- You- Wh— What the hell, Kuzuryu!?" Hinata sputters, staring at Kuzuryu.

"Self defense, okay? L-Let's keep moving." Kuzuryu replies. She flicks her knife to get some of the blood off of it, before turning down the hallway.

The three remained quiet as they began to slowly traverse the halls of the Main Course building. Every so often, they'd be unable to sneak past one of the attackers and Kuzuryu would have to stab them (much to Hinata's disgust, despite the fact he can't really argue against it). This pattern continued until they were about to move up to the third floor, and found the stairs blocked off by silver bars, instead.

"Hey!"

When somebody shouted, they turned their heads away from the bars. Somebody dressed in riot gear advanced towards them. He didn't have a rotting body, could speak, and was moving with speed — he wasn't anything like the attackers.

"Oh, thank god," Sato says, "You're not one of them, right?"

Their response was for the man to pull a pistol up from his side and aim it at them.

"I should be asking you that," he says, "Are you even part of the Main Course?"

Of course, they were still wearing their Reserve Course uniforms. With everything going on, they didn't think it'd pose a problem. They didn't really think about their uniforms at all, actually.

"What's the difference?" Sato asks.

The man glances behind him for any of the attackers and quickly looks back. His gun lowered a bit as he nods upward. "Backs against the wall."

"Huh? We're not—" Hinata tries to protest.

"Backs. Against. The wall!" he repeats himself, reinforcing his authority by pulling the gun's barrel back up to meet eye level of the students.

"What the fuck?" Kuzuryu grits her teeth, but does it anyway. Sato says nothing and complies with an angry, tense face. Hinata, who was already terrified, was the first one on the wall with his hands up in the air.

He comes in front of Kuzuryu, scanning her up and down with just his eyes. "You fuckin' perv." Kuzuryu bites.

"What's with the blood?" he says, glaring at her.

Kuzuryu's outfit was covered in blood, thanks to the amount of stabbing she got done that day. "It was self defense, okay? I had to kill some of the—"

"Drop the knife!" he suddenly shouts. Kuzuryu's hand went up to show him the knife, since he apparently never noticed it. He looks behind him again to make sure nobody's coming. Attackers could be seen in the near distance, but for some reason, they managed to not notice what's going on.

Kuzuryu rolls her eyes, saying "Okay, okay," before opening her grip and showing her palm. The blade bounces on the floor with a metallic sound.

"Kill some of who?" the man then asks, getting right back to business.

"Those crazies behind you, that's who." Kuzuryu says, pointing at the attackers behind him.

"Why are you all here?" he asks, barreling through this interrogation of his.

"We're all looking for someone," Hinata says.

"I'm looking for my brother." Kuzuryu says.

"I'm looking for my best friend Mahiru, and if we don't get going, they might be dead by now!" Sato says.

"And I'm looking for my friend Nanami…" Hinata finishes.

"Tch… Fucking Reserves." He shakes his head. "You know why you haven't seen any of them yet, right?"

The trio didn't reply. For some reason, they got the idea that they won't like where this is going.

"Because they're going about this the _safe_ way, and they're following lockdown orders. What, did you not get the announcement?" he continues.

"No, we sure got it." Kuzuryu says.

"Did no one stop you?"

"Our teacher definitely didn't try." Sato says.

"Goddamn… That whole building's messed up." The man says, closing his eyes. "Okay. Give me one reason why I shouldn't arrest you."

"Huh? For what? We didn't do anything!" Hinata protests.

"Really? Stabby McStabberson over here just admitted to killing her way up here! Not to mention you all are trespassing, so…?"

"You've got a gun!" Kuzuryu is next to protest, "Don't tell me you haven't had to kill them!"

"I haven't." He says.

"We just really needed to get in here, okay? Nobody was answering their phone, and we got worried!" Sato says.

"And you thought to leave during a lockdown? How did you even get here?" he asks.

"The field was empty." Sato says.

The guard sighs.

"Fine. I'll take your word for it that it was self defense, not like I can throw you back out there anyway."

He reaches past his utility belt and into his pants pocket, pulling out a ring of small keys. "Don't tell anyone what you told me. They might not be as forgiving." He puts one in the keyhole near the stairs and unlocks it. With that, the bars split in the middle and go into the walls, leaving the stairs free for anyone to use.

"Thanks," Kuzuryu says rather sarcastically, before heading upstairs.

 _'_ _Hope's Peak security is nothing to mess with…'_ Hinata thinks to himself before following suit.

* * *

The worst of it appeared to be over. The top two floors were free of the attackers, and in fact, students and staff alike roamed the halls like it was nothing. They even heard somebody playing a piano upon passing the music room. Some classes still went on. Again, like nothing was happening just a floor below.

"Isn't it funny how in a time like this the headmaster's office is locked?" Hinata overheard somebody.

"Heh, like he cares enough to come out and see us. Or at least give another announcement." Someone replied.

Sometime later, he saw a tanned girl with a ponytail talking about it all too. "But isn't it weird that we don't have internet?"

"Indeed." Another girl, dressed in purple with long hair to match said back, "We just conveniently lost service and internet as soon as this all began…"

"This might be more widespread than we thought." A black-haired girl with a look as icy as the purple-haired says, "Maybe service towers were attacked as well."

"But the timing… Mm. Maybe you're right." The purple girl says.

"W-Well, we can't really do anything about it, can we? I don't think we should be talking about that…" a male dressed in a blazer over an olive green hoodie says. The black-haired girl almost instantly nods and agrees. ( _'He sure got a different response,'_ Hinata had thought)

On the way up to the fifth floor, people started noticing them.

"Hey, aren't those Reserve Course students?"

"Who let them in _here?_ "

"I-Isn't that a Kuzuryu?"

"Did they actually come from the Reserve building? What idiots…"

"Hey!" Kuzuryu suddenly stopped at the stairs, whipped around and shouted loud enough the whole floor should hear. Everybody immediately stopped whispering and stared.

"Any of you got something to say? Huh? Maybe wanna say it to my face?" she continued, glaring at each and every one of the Main Course students who were talking behind their backs.

"Kuzuryu, we should—" Hinata attempted to grab her arm and try to pull her away, but she got out of his grip without any issue.

"Sorry, I'm not like you, Hinata. I have _pride._ " Kuzuryu says, "I'm not gonna let anyone talk like that."

Just as she expected, nobody actually rose to the challenge.

"Try and talk about me again," she taunts as she begins to turn back to the stairs, "I _dare_ you. You'll see what happens…"

After dropping that bomb of a threat, she goes up. Hinata and Sato followed, the former giving out a weak apology that fell on deaf ears.

"What the hell, Kuzuryu? Was that necessary?" Sato asks.

"Yes."

"If someone reports that and the security guard changes his mind about us, it won't be my fault…"

"Then I'll threaten him too. You know the three of us just took control over this whole school, right?" Kuzuryu says.

"What? How?" Sato doesn't buy it.

"Well, everyone was talking behind our backs, but no one actually wanted to say it to our faces. Now that they know I don't mess around, they aren't gonna mess around with us."

"Guess they did recognize you as a Kuzuryu." Sato rolls her eyes.

"Obviously." Kuzuryu grins.

The fifth floor was a different story than any of the others. Its style was much more modern with the white walls, spotlights along the walls, and the greenery around. Each floor was designed a different way than the last. Another thing splitting the Main Course and the Reserve Course.

"I see our tuition money's being put to good use," Sato says bitterly.

"This is probably just half of it," Kuzuryu says, "other half's probably in ol' Jin Kirigiri's pocket."

It doesn't take very long for them to find a door labeled 5-A. Kuzuryu said earlier that this was the room they were looking for all this time.

"Finally," Hinata says. He tries to open the door only to find that it's locked.

"Of course it's gonna be locked, dumbass," Kuzuryu says, pushing herself in front of Hinata and knocking on the door.

Muffled chatter came from inside the room before the knob turned and the door swung open.

"Yes?—Hinata!"

A young woman dressed in blue answered the door. She immediately recognized Hinata.

"Uh, hi Sensei." Hinata waves. Despite not being in her class, he still referred to her as his teacher, and she saw him as her student.

"What are you doing here!? Did you actually come from the Reserve building!?" she says, putting her hands on her hips and giving an angry look, though Hinata knew she was just being protective.

"Y-Yeah, maybe…"

"Hinata, you know her?" Kuzuryu asks, pointing a thumb at the teacher in question like she wasn't right in front of them.

"This is Yukizome," Hinata explains, "And she teaches Class 77, right?"

Yukizome nods. "Mhm! Did you all come here just for us?"

Kuzuryu forces herself past Yukizome and into the room. "Yep. Fuyuhiko! You in here!?" she calls out.

Yukizome laughs. "Come in." She says, stepping aside.

Sure enough, everyone from Class 77 was inside. It didn't take long for the three to find who they were looking for, and not any longer for them to criticize their decision to come all the way over.

"Are you stupid or something?" Fuyuhiko says, "You could've gotten fucking killed!"

"Sato! Oh my god, are you okay? Hey, Hinata! You were looking after Sato, right?" Mahiru says, glaring at him.

"Uh… Yeah, sure." Hinata decided not to tell her about the fact that it was Kuzuryu who did the protecting.

Nanami doesn't bother to look up from her game. "You came all this way to see me?"

Hinata scratches his neck. In hindsight, admitting that was going to be a little embarrassing. "W-Well, you see, Kuzuryu ran off so I—"

"Bullshit," Kuzuryu says, overhearing Hinata, "Sato came too, you didn't need to come."

 _'_ _D-Don't expose me like that!'_

"Oh…" Nanami eventually got the idea. "Thanks." She says, still rapidly tapping at her game.

"Ah! I-I think I got it!"

Up at the front of the class, a projector screen had been rolled down and something was displayed on it. With the lack of audio and the presence of light, it was hard to tell what.

"Oh! Good work, Fujisaki!" Yukizome says to the girl next to her, who had been behind a computer the whole time. "I'll make sure your teacher gets your grades up for doing this."

"Y-You don't need to do that…" Fujisaki says, but smiles anyway.

Yukizome opens a drawer and pulls out a cord. "Can someone hit the lights?" she asks as she starts hooking up the speakers.

"I got it!" a student dressed in yellow with pink hair shouts, practically jumping out of his chair and dashing toward the light switch.

However, a girl closer to it had gotten up first, so the pink-haired student crashed into her on the way there. She falls on the ground.

"Are you kidding!?" a short girl in a kimono says, "You fell _again!?_ "

"I-I'm sorry!" the girl on the floor exclaims.

"Why are you apologizing!?" a massive mountain of a man shouts, "It's not your fault! It's Souda who should apologize!"

"Hey! I said I got it, didn't I!?" Souda, the pink-haired one, tries to defend himself.

The lights were, of course, still on.

"Is your class always so… active?" Hinata asks Nanami.

She nods. It was just another day for the gamer.

Yukizome sighs and walks over to the lights, personally helping the fallen girl back to her feet. "There's no need to make fun of her, you guys!" she says, before turning off the lights herself.

Souda and the girl were back in their seats soon after, and with all that squared away, the class watched the screen.

The screen shows a live news channel. There's currently a helicopter view of the city's downtown core, and the kids were going to ask how Fujisaki got the internet working, but the warzone on screen was more of a bigger issue.

The roads were filled with hundreds of people, and at first glance, it looked as if they were all simply running one way, but there was more to it than that. The people in front were running away from another crowd behind them, and they looked exactly like the people attacking Hope's Peak. Some cars were on fire. Many different loud sirens played in the background. The people had to navigate around roadblocks the police set up at one point, and as they did, SWAT soldiers began opening fire on the attackers — you could see them dropping, one by one. However, there were simply too many of them, and they overran the police roadblock. This all happened on live TV.

As this scene played out, the very plausible fears everyone had were confirmed. This is bigger than they thought.

"—so we tried escaping through the parking lot, but some of them tried getting into their cars and driving away, but obviously that wouldn't work," a voice says, speaking very fast. The corner of the screen reads 'On the phone: Takano Dai'.

"How many of you escaped?" a clearer voice asks.

"I'm the only one!" Takano says. He starts breathing fast. "I-I don't know about the ones in the cars, but everyone I left with, they're— they're—"

"Takano, please try to calm down. We need to know what happened in that hospital."

As he says that, a headline flashes across the screen.

 ** _At least 500 dead, many more injured_**

"Oh my god!"

"No way that's true…"

"What!?"

"Th-this is it… The end times…"

"Haha… Is this really happening?"

"That wasn't a laugh, was it Komaeda?" a girl in a green and white dress asks.

"Ah… sorry." That's all Komaeda has to say in response.

Hinata drowns out the chatter of the class as he continues watching. Takano eventually regains enough composure to get out that he was a doctor working at a hospital, and at some point that rainy afternoon, _every_ hospitalized patient suddenly became very violent and aggressive, while not listening to reason or being responsive at all, at least in ways other than killing others.

With shaking legs, a result of being hammered with such news, he walks over to a nearby window and looks outside. What he sees is basically a mirror image of the news: violent, aggressive, and unresponsive people throwing themselves at the ones who are responsive and actually killing them.

Hinata turns back to look at Nanami.

 _"_ _It doesn't make a difference whether you have a talent or not."_

Her words ring in his mind. Everything she's done to help his pitiful self. How she went out of her way to be friends with a worthless soul like Hinata.

 _"_ _There's more to life than just talent."_

The only real bond Hinata has.

He then looks to the projector screen, where the headline '500 dead' remains and a hyperventilating doctor tries to explain the horrors he saw firsthand.

And when he turns to look back at Nanami, who suddenly wasn't safe anymore (just like him), he felt something he could only describe as despair.

* * *

[Chapter 2! Yaaaaay finally

I wanted this to be out Halloween weekend but that clearly didn't happen oh well. Anyway, take some more characters. Reserve course squad and DR2 squad will definitely be around in this story. Also, as you can probably tell already, there might be a decent amount of POV/time jumping. I think there'll be a little more time jumping at the beginning of the story (as in right now) just to explain everything that's happened. ...Well, not everything. You'll see.  
Also sorry for the really long delay... I'm a slow writer plus real life kind of exists and stuff. I'm also Nanowrimo'ing this year, so my focus will probably be on another story of mine for now, at least until after November.  
I think that's it for now. See you next update!]


	3. Vigilance

03

 _\- Vigilance -_

Twenty minutes passed.

During those awfully lengthy and grueling twenty minutes, the only things the survivors inside the supermarket could hear were the hoarse screams and groans of the infected surrounding them, and simultaneously, the screeching of their cracked nails against the glass doors. Infected threw themselves at the doors and fell to the asphalt outside with audible thumps every few moments.

Ikusaba was the only one able to drown out the constant reminders that hungry infected were busting down the doors. She peeked through the tiny cracks in the wooden boards nailed to the windows, eyes squinting as she scanned the parking lot for escape routes, having to adjust to the contrast from almost pitch black inside to the bright sunlight outside. The parking lot itself was empty - the only issue was getting through the lines of infected around the doors. Of course, this was the case for all back exits as well, making the survivors completely surrounded. The infected seemed to be smarter than they thought.

"Do you see anything, Ikusaba?" Maizono asked, being the one to break the silence amongst the survivors. She stood near the ex-soldier, looking at her with expectant eyes and her hands folded over her chest.

Ikusaba simply shook her head and turned away. At that moment, there was no way through. Kuwata, who had been pacing back and forth and dragging his bloodied bat behind him, sighed heavily in response.

"We will have to be patient," Oogami suggested. She took her place near a shelf that, at one point, carried a seemingly infinite amount of food. Now, like each other shelf, it was bare. Her backpack leaning against it had few items of value, which mostly included ramen noodle packages, but otherwise the things it held were less useful. Flavor packets and spices wouldn't mean anything if there was nothing to season.

"We've been patient for a while!" Kuwata snapped as he finally stopped in his tracks, spreading his arms out as he faced Oogami. He quickly looked away then back and put his arms down by his sides, before stuttering for a moment and saying, "How- how much longer are we gonna be stuck here? What if it gets dark out?"

"Then it will be dark. We aren't far from home; we will return safely, Kuwata," Oogami said in an attempt to reassure him.

"Right. Okay. So it's gonna be pitch black out and we're just gonna get through all those infected no problem. Yeah, no big deal, right? Man, are you kidding me!?" Kuwata exclaimed, voice getting faster and louder as time went on. He emphasized his words with his hands, swinging his bat around with every gesticulation with no regard to how close the others were.

"Quiet. You're way too loud," Ikusaba said in a calm and collected voice as she shot a glare to Kuwata. He shot his arms out to his sides again in protest, but decided against retorting verbally. He instead gritted his teeth and opted to walk away from the group.

"Hey, don't leave, man!" Hagakure protested, turning to face Kuwata's back. He stopped walking for a moment, "She's just sayin' that if we're quiet, maybe they'll leave, right Ikusaba?"

Ikusaba closed her eyes and resisted the urge to say, no, he was just getting on her nerves. "Yes," she said, "that's correct."

"Yeah? Don't bother me then," Kuwata said before being on his way.

Oogami crossed her arms over her chest. "Hagakure is right. The infected may think we're not here if we are quiet, and leave us alone."

"I hope so..." Maizono said with a befallen expression. That meant more waiting around and a later return to Hope's Peak. She was worried - she needed to be back home safe. The others were in her mind. The thought of Naegi, whom she had established a mutual support system with over the last eight months, came up a few times.

Twenty-five minutes passed. Kuwata hadn't returned to the group yet.

"Hey, so, anyone else wondering where Kuwata went?" Hagakure asked.

"Yeah…" Maizono replied, looking around from her position as if she'd suddenly find him.

"Man, hope he's okay. He's been worrying me!"

Maizono had to agree. His behavior had been off for a while. She knew he got anxious sometimes, but it seemed to be getting worse as the months dragged on.

"Y'know, maybe you should go look for him," Hagakure suggested, "Maybe he needs some help."

"But didn't he say not to bother him?" Maizono replied with a frown. She wanted to find him, but wanted to respect his wishes, as well.

"Maizono. He cares about you," Oogami said, making eye contact, "If there is anyone who can calm him down, it's you."

This was true. She spent a lot of time with him and knew full well that he got nervous sometimes. "Okay. I'll go look for him," Maizono replied, before going to search the rest of the supermarket.

There had to be a reason he didn't come back, so in order to find that out, Maizono broke off from the others to look where he went off to. She slowly passed by each aisle, looking down to the other end for Kuwata. The atmosphere in the supermarket was strange; every other time Maizono was there, it was always bustling with people, to the point just walking around was an impressive feat. To see it void of life and the shelves empty was a stark contrast. Suddenly, it didn't seem so small. The floor tiles were caked in dirt and mud as well as the random splotches of dark, dried blood every so often. Maizono made sure not to touch any of it in case the blood carried the virus. It was one of the many precautions her group took to avoid infection, as according to orders from Ishimaru.

Eventually, Maizono noticed the doors of the employees-only backroom were ajar. This wouldn't have struck her as particularly odd, if it weren't for the streaks of fresh blood in front of them. Her perception told her that may well have been from Kuwata's bat, which saw use prior to entering the supermarket. She decided to investigate.

She found Kuwata laying on his back atop a shelf, legs idly dangling off the end. He raised his head when he heard her come in, before sighing and putting his head down again.

"We ready to go yet?" he asked.

"Mm mm," Maizono hummed, signalling it wasn't time.

"Yeah, saw that one comin'. Thought it was worth a shot at least," Kuwata replied in a deadpan voice, still not making an effort to make eye contact with Maizono.

"Are you okay, Leon?" she asked, getting straight to the reason she seeked him out in the first place. The two had been on a first-name basis for some time now and she made use of it.

"Just need to get the hell outta here, dude. And it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon."

"Aw, Leon, don't be like that," Maizono said as a frown immediately came up on her face. She stepped closer, "We'll be home soon, I know it."

"And how are _you_ so confident?" Kuwata asked. He raised his brow, though as he still faced the ceiling, Maizono couldn't see it.

"I'm an esper, you know."

"Oh, goddammit."

Betraying his negative tone, Kuwata couldn't help but feel like his spirits were lifted, even if it was only in the slightest, with Maizono around. But Maizono was good at that - using his first name, using her famous line of "I'm an esper" - she knew it would re-establish familiarity. That sense of familiarity is exactly what Kuwata needed to calm his nerves.

"Like, it's gotta be getting late though, isn't it? We've been out for a couple hours by now. Holy shit, what if we're in here for _another_ couple hours? We can't leave if it gets dark-"

"Leon. Relax."

"..."

"Remember the breathing exercise I taught you?"

"Uh… yeah."

Kuwata groaned, before deciding he wasn't interested in being anxious like this. Not around Maizono or the others. There's a reason him and his baseball bat were invited along: sure, maybe Oogami or Ikusaba would be able to do this entirely by themselves alone, but Kuwata was selected to be a protector, and if he can help it, protecting is exactly what he'll do. So he took the advice Maizono's been giving him to help his nerves and started slowing down his breath. Slow inhale, hold for a few moments, slower exhale. No strict times, it was easier to remember that way than the specific number of seconds on each part. He also counted each breath; one on the inhale, two on the exhale, three on the inhale, so on and so forth until he got to ten and started over again.

Maizono was patient. She waited by an empty storage rack. So not to make his nerves any worse, she made sure not to stare at him for too long.

Eventually, Kuwata rubbed his face and sat up. "Ugggh. Okay. I'm still fucked up, don't get me wrong, but… I dunno, whatever." The words were awfully embarrassing. This was a side that not many people get to see and that made him feel rather vulnerable.

"You're gonna be okay?" Maizono asked. She came over and propped herself up on to the shelf, sitting next to Kuwata.

Kuwata nodded. "Sorry, man. You know I get like this easy."

"Everyone gets scared."

"I guess. I just don't wanna die out here. And I don't want you to die, either."

"Don't worry. We won't," Maizono said before flashing Kuwata a smile from the side, "my intuition says we won't, remember?"

"Right."

There was a pause, for a while. The two sat in silence. Kuwata had nothing else to say, and Maizono seemed to have successfully - or, as best as she could have - done her job. Kuwata was still worried, and silently hoped that they _would_ have to stick around for a while, just so he could properly calm down. At the very least, he wasn't at risk of an emergency.

Things stayed that way for some time.

It was exactly thirty-six minutes of waiting for something to happen.

A shrill crash suddenly pierced the two's eardrums, followed by the roars of the infected. Maizono gasped and shot off her seat and Kuwata did the same, immediately grabbing his bat.

"Ohhhh man, here we go! _Guys! Let's go! They're here!_ " Hagakure shouted from the main entrance. Maizono and Kuwata sprinted out of the storage room, the latter almost tripping on the way out.

The scene didn't feel real, at first. A flood of infected washed through the doors like a tsunami. The others had already made it to the side of the store where Maizono and Kuwata were, so they weren't separated.

"What the hell happened!?" Kuwata yelled. His already-sweating palms started soaking more around the bat's wooden material.

"They just broke in!" Hagakure replied with the same volume and intensity. His eyes were widened and his pupils shrunk to a miniscule fraction of their regular size.

"The doors weren't strong enough! Go, through the back!" Ikusaba ordered, pointing to a nearby exit, which was free of infected.

Hagakure dashed toward the door directly after, with Maizono following.

"Why is this exit even free!?" Hagakure asked, dumbfounded, "Was it always like this!?"

"No," Ikusaba replied, facing the infected who were growing closer. With a grunt, she swung her combat blade across and killed one who got too close. "I noticed earlier, they started coming around to the front. Now that it's open, they're all coming in through there!"

"What!? Damn Zs are smart!" Hagakure liked to call the infected "Zs".

Ikusaba was putting her military training and lightning-fast moves to use. She took the infected who came too close and sliced their foreheads open with a quick slash of her combat knife, in combination with shoving them back and cracking open skulls with her elbows. Her legs were strong enough to break those of the infected, putting them on the floor. To put it simply, she was a cold blooded killer. Oogami, the brawns of this operation, was doing something similar, though it was with her fists and advanced martial arts techniques.

Kuwata was left frozen between Ikusaba and Oogami on the frontlines, and Hagakure and Maizono ready to leave.

Fight, or leave?

Attack the infected, or run?

Defend his friends, or chicken out?

"Leon!? What're you doing!?" Maizono asked. She had to raise her voice over the crunching of infected bones being broken.

Kuwata slowly turned to look at her, and made eye contact for the first time since they first entered the supermarket. Despite his labored breath and sweat dripping down his face, he gave her a confident nod.

His grip tightened as he faced the infected, before running into the fray.

" **HEY!** " he roared, strong enough he felt his body vibrating. Everyone - the infected, Ikusaba, and Oogami - were caught off guard and looked at him. That's precisely what he wanted. Kuwata ran forward and swung his bat down on the first infected he saw, which sank into its soft, rotten flesh with ease. Its brain was destroyed and it fell to the floor, lifeless.

"Get outta here, go! I've got the bat here!" Kuwata said to the others, before swinging for another powerful homerun and demolishing another infected's face. He swung again and took one more down. Being able to put more distance between himself and the infected than Ikusaba or Oogami made for increased efficiency.

Ikusaba saw one coming on the side and thrusted her blade into it, before looking at Oogami and nodding. She pulled her knife back out and joined the rest of the group at the exit.

Kuwata kept swinging.

With each swing, he killed an infected, and became more and more detached to the situation. He was less aware of what was happening. All he knew was that if he kept swinging, he would kill more infected, and therefore reduce the threat towards his friends. That's all he wanted. Eventually, the threat would be reduced to zero, if he kept it up.

As his situational awareness was virtually zilch, he didn't notice the crawling infected, legs broken by Ikusaba, pass him by. He didn't know that he was the only survivor in the supermarket except for Maizono, who had been calling for him to come with at the top of her lungs. He didn't know that she was also too stressed to pay full attention to her surroundings.

It was her pained screaming that broke him out of his zone.

He stepped away from the wall of infected, and slowly turned his head to see Maizono on the floor, with an infected munching on her leg like dinner.

"NO!" Kuwata ran over to her, stabbing down into the crawler's head with his bat, before looking at the bite. He didn't have time to get a real look at the wound, so he grabbed her arm and dragged her outside under the setting sun, doing his best to block out her groans of pain. He didn't notice the breeze, but his body was ice cold regardless.

Hagakure was outside, about to come back in before he saw what happened. "W-Woah! Oh man- what!? Oh no," He was reduced to a stumbling mess, eyes darting between Maizono on the ground and the infected about to come through the doors.

He ran to the doors and held them closed against the infected.

"Hey, get her outta here, dude!" Hagakure said to Kuwata, pointing behind him to the rest of the group.

"What're you doing!?" Kuwata retorted. He quickly brought Maizono's arm around his shoulder, bringing her wound off the asphalt.

"Don't worry, man! Just go! She needs you!"

Those words struck a chord.

Does she, really? Kuwata didn't know. He had no clue if that was true or not.

What he knew was true, however, was that if he died here, he couldn't be there for Maizono. Obviously, she can't die, and he needs to help her.

"No way…"

"I can't hold this forever!" Hagakure said in a strained voice. He grinded his teeth together, pressing against the doors with all his strength. "Hnnnng…"

…

"Thank you!"

" _Thank you"_ is what he said? For staying back to save his, Maizono's, and everyone else's lives, risking his own in the process? Kuwata immediately regretted it, but he didn't know what else to say. It wasn't like he could write a proper "thank you" card with a nice message.

Kuwata went as fast as he could through the parking lot under the orange sky, catching up with his friends, Maizono over his shoulder.

All in all, Kuwata and his friends were in the supermarket for under an hour (just over forty minutes), but with things the way they were, that was just a testament to how fast things could go under.

The infirmary was silent, save for the slow rhythm of two different heartbeat monitors' monotone beeping.

Nidai, who was patched up by Ikusaba, fell asleep in his hospital bed. Ikusaba said the bleeding wasn't too bad, and he should be fine.

Maizono hadn't woken up yet. Naegi gave her the Iris that once belonged to Nidai, so she'll live through the night, much to Kuwata's relief. Naegi was supposed to go back out that night in search of another Iris, but Kirigiri had an important matter for him, so he was off somewhere else in the school. Kuwata joined the others and was out again. In the infirmary, Kimura, the SHSL Pharmacist who had been looking after Maizono, and Ishimaru remained.

"I hope Kuwata's okay. Going after someone to rob them of their Iris isn't like him," Ishimaru commented, "but I'm glad he went back out."

Kimura was busy at a table a distance away, working on something. Bottles and equipment were scattered all across it. "...yes," she eventually replied in a quiet tone, "I need more."

"More? More Irises?" Ishimaru asked, looking over at her.

Kimura nodded.

"But Maizono is sick," Ishimaru said with a frown.

"I know. That's why… I'm doing this…"

Ishimaru stood up from his chair, walking over to see Kimura's work. He didn't understand any of it, but he still wanted a look. "Do you think you need a lot more?"

"I do. Also, I…" Kimura trailed off. Ishimaru was used to this, having spent a lot of time in the infirmary visiting Maizono and seeing Kimura as well, so he gave her a moment to collect her thoughts. "I need… one of them."

"Hm? Need one of what?"

"...the infected."

"What?"

"I need samples. That's how I can do this… if I learn how Irises are made, how they delay the infection… how the infection works…"

Kimura looked up at Ishimaru. "...then I can make the cure, and save Maizono."

* * *

[A/N:

So it's been over a year... O O P S

Yeah uh if anyone from the last couple chapters are still here, holy hell, first of all: why. Second, thank you. I'm gonna assume you forgot and this update was a reminder. In case I have new readers, which I imagine all who are reading this are, hi! I definitely have trouble keeping schedule, but this was ridiculous. An exception. My biggest problem is keeping my interest in something I'm writing, which is something that went in and out all this year, as well as having to write several drafts before I like a chapter. I think I rewrote this three times, only to end up with a lil 3k chapter, which is tiny by my standards. Like, I've had 13k words by the second chapter of this, for reference. But anyway, hopefully, you shouldn't expect a yearly update schedule. But I'm not going to make any promises because school murders me and I really only had time to write during my winter break, which I'm on right now. maybe I'll just write the rest of this whole fic while I have time (i fucking wish)

Guess I should talk about the chapter itself. You may or may not remember in the first chapter that an incident where five people, including Maizono, were on a supply run and Maizono was bit. This is that incident. Kuwata's characterization was... interesting to write. Looking at his trial in the game, he gives me the impression of someone who's generally pretty chill, but gets really nervous and starts freaking out when things don't go his way (like uh y'know being accused of murder and threatened with death), so I tried to play on that. Pls let me know if I went ooc or didn't write symptoms of anxiety correctly. I'm not sure if I'm giving him any clinical anxiety issues, but still. Anyway, this chapter is basically trying to set the premise of the story, at least from the DR1 cast's point of view: the constant search for Irises, and the development of a be-all and end-all cure. I know I focused on DR1 kids here, but DR3 characters including Kimura will make some appearances in the same story. I'll soon be getting to what's going on with the DR2 kids and reserve course kids too.

Idk why my end notes were that long but that's all, seeya next update which hopefully won't take a year]


	4. Patience

[A/N: Hey, here we are again. So I haven't replied to reviews at all, which is mainly because I'm used to ao3 where you can reply to comments... I'll start doing that up here, though.

Rhyo: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you liked it so much and I hope you're still seeing these updates. Yeah, you'll see that not all the tropes around how to kill a zombie apply here. But destroying the brain will probably do the job pretty good, brains are important. Thanks for reading :)

DRFan: Thanks, I'm glad I've been in character and that I've been handling this well. Writing Hajime and co was probably one of my favorite parts to write so far, they're all some of my fav characters, so I'm glad you liked that chapter. Also, the tip on the tags is appreciated, I'm gonna take a look at that.

penchou: "One of the best and well written zombie apocalypse aus"? Omg pls. You know how to compliment a writer. Thanks so much for sticking around, hope you enjoy this update!

Okay, here we go, chapter 4.]

* * *

\- 04 -

 _\- Patience -_

One of the surprises of the apocalypse was how fast time seemed to fly by.

It wasn't always like this. As the situation grew worse and things like responsibilities fell apart, Naegi and his friends were… bored. Being relieved of homework and projects was nice at first, but lacking a necessary goal to work towards meant there wasn't much to do anymore, and the days dragged on. You can only spend so much time in the rec room before it becomes old news. But even then, looking back, Naegi really can't believe it's been so many months since it's been like this. All the days of wasting time around the school, occasionally being out searching for food, blurred together into a strange, single event separating the present from the day the infected attacked, which felt days ago at most.

Naegi found himself in the middle of another blurry day.

In the defence of his class, the last few days had actually been relatively productive. Two Irises were obtained. The first one was a real stroke of luck — the night Nidai took the gunshot, Naegi went back out to replace his Iris and recognized someone else who managed to buy one. The woman apparently had more, so she was happy to trade it for some food parcels the group brought along. This did mean they were even shorter on food than before, but they were rationing, not starving; so it wasn't so bad. After receiving directions from Nidai, a group hiked to his hideout to drop off the Iris. Supposedly, Nidai's friends were good people, but they were said to be in a "poor condition".

(As for the second Iris — which went to Maizono — Naegi wasn't on that search, and he didn't ask where it came from. The source isn't always pretty, and after Nidai, he knew this first hand.)

So now, there Naegi sat, on his dorm bed. He didn't think the bed was anything too special, the mattress was a bit worn out and the bedding set was rather average, but he was glad to have it. Having Hope's Peak as a hideout really was a godsend. Part of the deal was electricity; which was great, as it charged Naegi's smartphone as he tapped away at a game. The phone was old to begin with and because of the obvious state of things, he couldn't exactly upgrade, so the battery would last a solid twenty minutes without the plug, if he was lucky. He would get notifications every so often telling him to download updates as well, since he didn't get the chance to install them the last time he had internet. Still, even if he somehow did have internet, he was pretty sure the servers offering the update wouldn't be functional by now — he had a conversation with Fujisaki about this once, someone well-versed in technology. Another reminder of the lack of internet are the ads that don't load, sometimes infinitely buffering, trying to make a connection to something that no longer exists. Naegi would have to restart whatever game or app he was using to get past it at times. It all served to tell Naegi he was holding on to something he shouldn't have anymore; a relic from a time gone.

Naegi looked up at his high score, and knew unless he put in the time and effort, he wouldn't get close to it. His score was so elusive because he always had the time to put in the effort — right now, he had the time but didn't care to put in the effort. Frankly, he would download something else if he could. He sighed.

 _'_ _...I've been at this for a while anyway, haven't I?'_ he thought, looking off his phone and up at the ceiling (not caring that the blocks were filling up the screen, piling up to build a misshapen tower that would end the game if he didn't pay attention), _'I guess I should get up.'_

Naegi sat up from his resting position, thumbing the home button to check the time. 12:36PM according to the header. His phone had a strange error where it would sometimes display the wrong time, and restarting it tended to fix it, but it would usually be on the right hour at least, which was enough for Naegi. He yawned, realizing how tired he was. Having nothing to do did that to him.

 _'_ _Ugh. This is bad. Maybe I'll take a shower.'_

Yeah. That sounded nice. A somewhat late wake-up call for the day, then some lunch. He'll figure out what to do after that later.

* * *

Each individual dorm may be lucky enough to have running water, but Naegi would find out the food situation wasn't the same story.

Once upon a time, Naegi and his friends had access to every ingredient the kitchen of Hope's Peak Academy had to offer. The difference between now and then, is that then, there was a constant intake of orders and shipments ensuring the kitchen was never empty. Food would always be coming in. Now, that first set of food was gone, and the shelves would only ever have whatever food item that could be scavenged through searches and such.

Naegi stood on his toes to reach a high shelf, where a single can of tomato soup lay. He strained to reach for it, his fingers dancing about until they slid the can close enough to get a grip. Tomato soup wasn't particularly interesting; but of course, the circumstances put him in the position of a beggar, and he knew beggars couldn't be choosers. He started to prepare it.

 _'_ _There isn't a lot of food, huh… I should share this with Nidai. Actually, I wonder how he's doing, anyway.'_

He was left to his thoughts as he gathered a couple of bowls and spoons, waiting for the soup to cook.

…

"Hm?"

Naegi blinked. Someone came in.

"Oh. Why, isn't it Naegi."

Naegi turned away from the pot to the kitchen entrance, where a girl his age, dressed in a gothic lolita fashion (a stark contrast to his track pants and hoodie) stood. Her twintails were tied up perfectly, just as they were the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the other few hundred days before that. Naegi recognized her as his classmate, and just like every other time he sees her, was dumbfounded as to why she insisted on dressing so formally in the apocalypse.

"Hi Celes," he greeted her and turned back to his pot of soup. Actually commenting on her style was the last thing on his mind.

Celes' heels clacked against the tiled floor as she passed Naegi to get to the shelf with the teabags. "Making lunch?" she asked.

"Yeah. Making tea?"

"Mhm."

That was a guess. He didn't actually see her go to the teabags, but from what he knew about her, it was an _educated_ guess.

Celes stopped about halfway through opening the shelf, eyeing the bowls Naegi set out on the counter. "Oh… Lunch for two?"

"Huh?" Naegi looked over, remembering that he did in fact take out the bowls already, "Oh, yeah. I—"

 _"'_ _m bringing some for Nidai,"_ he was about to finish. He caught himself mid-sentence, nearly choking as he cut himself off.

"Hm? Were you saying something?" Celes asked, tilting her head.

"Ah, uh, no."

Celes nodded. "Who is the other bowl for, if I may ask?"

"It's—"

"I do hope it's not for that man using our infirmary right now," Celes said with a frown, "if we keep feeding him like this, he might not want to leave."

Naegi swallowed. This behavior wasn't uncommon since Nidai arrived.

"I understand that even _he_ needs to eat, but perhaps he's getting comfortable, don't you think? We _are_ some of the luckiest people on the planet right now," Celes continued. She took the teabags out of the shelf before moving on, "perhaps he will invite his friends. That would be most unfortunate. After all, we don't know them, and we barely have enough food for us…"

 _'_ _Man, she knows how to lay on the pressure, doesn't she?'_

Naegi paused to think about how to handle this. He turned his head to face Celes, "Well, you said it yourself, right? He needs to eat too. We can't let him starve."

Celes thought for a moment, before gathering the rest of the things she needed for her tea. She came over right next to Naegi to put the tea kettle on the stove, close enough that he smelled her elegant perfume and felt just a little bit intimidated, before she said, "You're right. He would die and then turn in that case, wouldn't he?"

 _'_ _What? No, that's not what I meant!'_

"That's exactly what I meant," Naegi replied with a nod, "obviously, we can't have an infected in here."

A sly smile came upon Celes' lips. "Ah, Naegi. Your lying is terrible." She says this casually as she begins preparing her tea.

 _'_ _Damn. Of course she'd see through that, it's Celes.'_

"Sure, you caught me. But it's true, isn't it? Besides, maybe if he eats, he'll get his strength up sooner and be back with his friends."

Celes was quiet for a moment. Eventually, she looked up at Naegi. "You may be a horrible liar, but your way with words is as expected."

Naegi met her eye contact with confusion. "Wait, is that a good thing?"

She simply smiled and said, "don't keep him waiting."

Naegi sighed in relief.

* * *

He really hated going to the infirmary. It only ever meant someone was hurt, and as of late it also meant there was a dying Maizono in the back.

Though, Nidai really was braving the wound he took. He was in his bed, leaned up against the wall, flipping through a dated sports magazine from the year before. He looked up as Naegi entered, putting the book aside.

"Hey Nidai. I brought you some soup," Naegi greeted. He carefully placed Nidai's bowl of steaming soup on the bed's swivel table, before sitting in a nearby seat to eat with him.

"Oh! Naegi, are you sure about this?" Nidai asked with big eyes, seeming genuinely concerned.

"Huh? Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you've given me a lot of hospitality. Food, medicine, a bed? Your friends must be worried I'm gonna stick around!" Nidai 'joked', breaking out into his signature laugh.

 _'_ _If only you knew…'_

"Don't worry about it, Nidai," Naegi replied, "Just eat. You need it."

"Can't deny I'm pretty hungry. That's what happens when you're big like me," Nidai said with a smile, accepting the bowl. He swiveled the table closer to him and took a couple spoonfuls. Naegi did the same.

For a while, it was silent. Nidai said nothing and neither did Naegi. Nidai was the conversation starter between the two of them, so for him to not say anything was rather uncharacteristic. Maybe it was because he was eating. Maybe he really was that hungry. Whatever it was, Naegi was racking his brain for something to talk about.

"So, I think I'm getting out of here in a few days," Nidai broke the silence with that nuclear bomb of a sentence.

" _What?_ Uh, you know you just got shot, right?" Naegi pointed out. His spoon, carrying soup, hovered above the bowl; he expected Nidai to stay weeks at a minimum. He was pretty sure it'd be months before he recovered and moved out, actually.

Nidai nodded. He took another spoonful before looking at Naegi, "It'll heal. I appreciate everything you did, but I really need to get back to my friends, you know?"

"Didn't Ikusaba say you were almost paralyzed?" Naegi deadpanned.

Nidai grimaced. "Mm. Yeah, I'm not sure I'll be able to walk on my own yet… I think I have to borrow a pair of crutches from you guys."

"You think you'll be able to walk _with_ crutches?"

"Of course! I'm stronger than you think, Naegi."

The line may have sounded insulting, but Nidai's warm smile made sure it was just reassurance.

"I'll come back to drop off the crutches once I can walk normal again. Is that alright?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess… oh, man. I'm sorry about all this," Naegi said. He put his spoon down for a moment.

"Heh? Why?"

"Huh? Well, I'm sorry that you've gotta walk with crutches—"

"No," Nidai interrupted, "I got that. Why are you sorry about that?"

Now Naegi was confused. He furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Because you were walking fine until we came and shot you?", though it came out more like a question than an answer.

"Naegi, you said _'we'_ just now, right?" Nidai said. His voice carried a serious tone and his face matched it.

Naegi slowly nodded, eyebrows still drawn together.

"Did _you_ pull the trigger, Naegi?" Nidai asked.

Naegi suddenly got where Nidai was going with this, and sighed. He first went for more soup, swallowed, then said, "No, I didn't, I know that. But I still hold the blame—"

"No, you don't!" Nidai interrupted again. He had suddenly raised his voice, catching Naegi off guard. He shifted in the bed to sit more upright before continuing, "You had nothing to do with this. You wanted to talk, then your friend did what he did out of desperation. No one's wrong here!"

"What? _You literally can't walk!_ "

"And that's fine! Listen, man. Shit happens," Nidai said, sternly. His voice was unwavering and clear, "and when it does, you gotta roll with it! What's done is done. Oowada's already apologized and owned up to it, anyway."

"..." Naegi went silent. It's not often that he's the one being convinced of an argument. Generally, as it was before with Celes, he wins arguments. This was foreign, but he let Nidai finish.

"So what I'm tryin' to say here is, stop feelin' sorry, alright? Especially for things you had shit all to do with."

"...Yeah, maybe you're right. Sorry."

"Well, I'll take that one!"

Nidai burst out laughing again, and the atmosphere did a complete one-eighty. Learning that even now, after being shot and separated from his friends, that Nidai wasn't angry, took a load off Naegi's shoulders. He was convinced Nidai's strength wasn't entirely based physically, but as a person, as well.

The two finished their soup, lamenting that it went cold.

* * *

Ishimaru stepped out into the streets. His objective was to hunt an infected, but should things go his way, the switchblade in his hand should stay locked in place.

As he carefully stepped down the stairs of the entrance to Hope's Peak, he kept an eye out for patches of ice that would betray the dark by shining in the moonlight. Judging by how much time has passed, it had to be winter by now, but one wouldn't know it by the weather — strangely, it hadn't been all that cold. It was windy at times, like the current evening. But the temperature hadn't dropped as far as it tended to in the years before. It simply snowed here and there, maybe one noticeably brisk day a week. Ishimaru wasn't sure if it was connected to the apocalypse's state of affairs or not (pollution, perhaps?).

His eyes went back up to look straight, and he took a deep breath. This would be easy, wouldn't it? All Kimura wanted was to examine one of the infected victims. It was part of the cure; she felt she had to learn the biology of an infected person. Biology may not be in her SHSL title, but she was more certified than anyone else in the building. Ishimaru just had to take one back to Hope's Peak, unnoticed. Easy.

He really wished he didn't have to be secretive about it, but the others are distraught about Maizono. Telling them that him and Kimura were spending Irises on a cure they don't know can actually be created would be a bad idea. No one other than this duo knew there was a third Iris recently found, dedicated to Kimura's research and development. For obvious reasons, no one wanted an infected inside Hope's Peak, either. (Neither did Ishimaru, but he felt a duty to contribute to the cure's development.)

Finding an infected was easy enough. Ishimaru followed the closest grunting and groaning he heard until he found one, awkwardly shuffling away from him. Ishimaru observed that it placed its' pale, grey hand against the storefronts for support. This was a curious sight — he wondered if it would fall otherwise, and if it knew that.

Regardless, it was a prime target. No one else was around, making Ishimaru and the infected completely secluded.

It limped at a snail's pace, allowing Ishimaru to take his time. A plan formulated in his head. It needs to come back, unconscious. Ishimaru needs to be inside the school before it could consider waking up again. Through experience, he knew the infected tended to stay unconscious for long periods of time, so he didn't think it would be an issue. More importantly, it can't die.

Ishimaru snuck closer, stalking his prey at a pace only marginally faster. The sound of his footsteps was absorbed by the dirt and blood and other debris on the road, but he took his time anyway. He spun the switchblade around in his hand so the handle was facing downward.

He swallowed, now behind the infected. Its' groans were getting louder, in fact, each groan was more like a shrill howl in agony at this point. At this distance, Ishimaru noticed its' foot stuck out in a way that made the leg look like a deformed golf club, and a sharp yellow bone was visible from a wound in the ankle, covered in dried blood. There was a bite in the fabric of its' pants just above, where blood slowly dripped out of. Ishimaru considered if the ankle wound was how it was bit. Maybe before it became an 'it', he was running away. Maybe he tripped, or maybe his foot was already broken, and the infection worsened it. It must not have known how to deal with the broken foot, but that would mean it eventually learned to use the walls for support. That suggested some of the brain is still functioning beyond instincts.

Ishimaru reached the end of the block when he realized he was stalling.

 _'_ _None of that matters… I need to do this already!'_

But he didn't do it yet.

 _'_ _Why…?'_

 _'_ _This is not the first time I've attacked an infected, I've even killed a few. Why do I still…?'_

If he had his way, he would have turned around and went home, at this point. He didn't want to hurt the infected. It was already hurt, and it clearly understood the concept of pain.

...

He thought of Maizono, and the possibility that doing this might go toward saving her. He thought that was the right thing to do.

 _'_ _The right thing…'_

The right thing — what Ishimaru always made sure he did. He knew there wasn't a morally 'better' choice to make here.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly apologized out loud. The infected heard this and stopped moving. Slowly, its head turned.

And Ishimaru struck the back of its scalp with the blade's handle, bringing it to the ground, unmoving.

As if the infected would disappear if he didn't act quick enough, he immediately crouched down and placed a finger against its' neck. After a few moments, he felt a heartbeat. He did it: the infected is still alive, just collapsed on the ground unconscious. A heavy, relieved breath escaped his lungs.

Ishimaru picked up the underweight infected and carried it over his shoulder with relative ease. It left him unable to use the switchblade, but he ran fast enough to negate needing it.

* * *

Kimura was waiting outside. She saw Ishimaru sprinting toward the stairs, and her eyes widened in surprise. He actually did it.

When he reached her, panting just a tad, she told him to wait for a moment as she went back inside. She pulled open the heavy door that creaked in a way that made it clear it hadn't been attended to in quite a while (oil sprays were hard to come by, as much as it needed some). Unexpectedly, the main floor appeared much larger when it needed to be empty. Kimura was light on her feet as she nimbly paced around, keeping an eye out for anyone. It was rather late in the evening, so while no one was asleep, most had to be in their rooms. She checked several different classrooms to be safe, quickly opening the doors and shutting them once she decided they were clear. Finally, she checked the infirmary. Nidai was fast asleep and Maizono was no different, as expected.

She turned around to face a surprised classmate, having snuck up on her.

Ando Ruruka stood in the doorway, smiling as she casually looked past Kimura. "Hey, what's the door open for?" she asks, "Looks like they're trying to sleep back there!" Despite her words, Ando didn't make any obvious attempt to hush her voice.

Kimura's face suddenly lost all its color in one fell swoop. Ando cannot learn what she was up to.

"So whatcha doin'?" Ando asked, smiling at Kimura. Her hands were behind her back, and she leaned forward with a tilted head, making herself look as innocent as possible. "I was just over in that hallway connected to the dorms, and I saw you running around all crazy-like!"

Kimura began sweating. "I- I—"

Ando frowned. "Aw. Why are you so nervous?"

"Wh-what are _you_ doing here?" Kimura eventually managed to ask.

"Hm? Me?" Ando asked, adjusting her posture to stand up straight, "I just wanted to get some fresh air, that's all."

"No!" Kimura blurted, before covering her mouth (already covered by a mask) with a hand, immediately regretting it. It already felt like a heavy matted blanket was constricting her entire body head to toe, yet it tightened even further.

"No?" Ando simply quoted.

"...the air is not fresh," Kimura said, before noticeably gulping. That wasn't a smart statement either.

"Oh, I know. But it's all I can get. I didn't know you cared about me enough to say that, anyway."

As Ando's eyes squinted, the pressure on Kimura was immense enough that she felt physically unable to reply.

"Well…" Ando said, her innocent smile coming back, "If you say so. Maybe I'll just go back to my room."

Kimura nodded, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.

Ando giggled and turned around. "Okay, bye!" she said, as she made her way to the dormitories. Kimura watched to make sure she left.

She pulled her mask down and sighed in relief. Slowly, the blanket came off and she felt as if she had control over her body again. She took off a glove to wipe excess sweat off her face, before going back to the entrance to let Ishimaru in, now that the coast was clear.

* * *

When Ishimaru was invited back inside and asked what took so long, he didn't get a response at all. He figured it didn't matter, so long as he got the rotting corpse off his shoulder. He moved quietly but fast, going through the main lobby into the dormitories, then up the stairs into Kimura's room, all without waking up the infected. For a while, he thought it died, but then he'd feel a miniscule puff of air pass through its mouth, warming his back. His hypothesis was that it wasn't just unconscious but rather sleeping; while that means the same thing, it meant the infected wouldn't be awake until the sun not only came up but was well into its cycle for the day. Infected people don't know they have to sleep, so when they do after mindlessly wandering for days at a time, it's for upwards of twelve to fifteen hours.

It didn't take long for Kimura to start working. Ishimaru didn't quite understand what she was doing, only noticing her observing the infected for the time being, so he silently stood by and watched.

"It's… strange," Kimura eventually broke the silence.

"Huh? What's strange?" Ishimaru asked.

"It's asleep… not moving, peaceful…"

"Of course, they're still human, aren't they?"

"Yes, but… I think that's what's so strange about this."

"I don't understand."

"It could've killed you," Kimura explained, "it must be violent when it's awake… but we have it, under control…"

Ishimaru did have to agree that the situation was quite surreal. The infected have done so much to hurt so many, seeing one like this was a welcome change of pace.

"Maybe we can keep it like this. You should get started before it wakes up."

Kimura nodded. She pulled up her mask and made sure her gloves were on tight, before getting hands on to examine the subject before her. Ishimaru was nearby, switchblade ready, in case of anything.

This might be a long night.

* * *

[A/N: Told you the next update won't take a year.

The last few chapters were rather action packed, so we're... *kinda* taking a break with this one, so we can focus on the characters and the plot n all that. Hopefully the way the virus works makes more sense as of this chapter. I also think I'm starting to hammer out my writing style and POVs. In this chapter, we go from Naegi's POV to Ishimaru's to Kimura's back to Ishimaru's while staying in third person. Third person is uh. a new thing for me. But I think it's working. Let me know if it's getting confusing.

In the next couple chapters I wanna set up the last of the background plot, including what's up with the DR2 cast. Then I ca start with the real plot, and steer it where I want it to go. Hopefully, that shouldn't be much longer.

Seeya next update]


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